


Radioactive

by Odds_Evens



Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Cannon Typical Violence, Canon Divergence, Chorus Trilogy, F/M, M/M, Relationships to be added - Freeform, Shit this is going to be long, cannon typical swearing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-06
Updated: 2016-08-03
Packaged: 2018-05-25 01:52:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 12
Words: 27,760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6175711
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Odds_Evens/pseuds/Odds_Evens
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the Epsilon unit, he'd tried to set Tex free. What if instead he'd trapped her? What if Hargrove was the one to free her from the unit, and offer her a chance at revenge against the Reds and Blues, the team she'd thought cared about her? </p>
<p>Or: Tex gets a body and kicks ass on Chorus. Who's ass? Everybody's.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Stay

In the beginning she'd been more surprised then angry.

_Did that asshole just try deleting me?_

Okay, so there had definitely been anger too. But mostly surprise. When Church had declared he needed to tell her three little words she'd honestly been expecting some sort of desperate and pathetic declaration of love. That's what her Church would have done.

But Epsilon wasn't her church. Just like she wasn't the Alpha's Beta.

And okay, that pissed her off something royal.

And then the asshole had tried to delete her!

He hadn't succeeded. Didn't matter if she was just memories of a copy of a memory... Or a copy of a copy of a memory? Whatever! Whatever she was, she was still better then him. Stronger then him.

The unit failing probably could have killed her, but it didn't fail. One minute Epsilon was there (trying to delete her!) the next she couldn't even find his little Blood Gulch playground.

That's where the surprise came in. It wasn't like the unit was all that big. Large enough for two fragments (or at least large enough for a fragment and whatever the fuck she was), but it shouldn't have been large enough for her to completely lose track of him. He wasn't smart enough to hide like she was.

But he'd tried deleting her so maybe he'd gotten scared? More likely he had attempted self-deletion when they'd both thought the memory unit was failing and was in some shadowy corner somewhere slowly putting himself back together.

It wasn't like he'd found an escape and just left her behind.

That was stupid.

He wouldn't do that. He wouldn't leave without her.

After days of searching she decided to take a page out of his book and create her own fantasy world. With Blood-Gulch deleted, there was more then enough room for her to create her own virtual playground...

\---

The tremors were coming more and more often.

The fake Carolina came running into the room, fake York at her heels. They both saluted the black figure at the end of the holographic table before delivering their report.

"It looks like the waves are coming from a nearby black hole."

"Can we escape it's pull?" Tex asked, black gloves digging into the table in frustration.

The two freelancers exchanged a look through their visors, one that Texas didn't miss. (She didn't miss anything. This was _her_ world.)

"That's the thing..." York stammers. "We're far enough out that it isn't pulling at us."

"Then why are we feeling tremors?"

"We shouldn't be."

Tex's grip actually cracks the table and the hologram flickers out.

Carolina steps up to her in concern. "What is it, Director?"

"I've felt something like this before." Tex sighs.

"When?"

"When I was on a planet."

York chuckles. "I think those are called earth-quakes. This is a little different."

She shuts up his laughing with a look. "I know what I'm talking about, York."

"Then what is this?" Carolina asks.

Tex pauses for a moment, considering if she should say anything. She had no idea how long it's been since she first created this little world of hers. Not that it was so little anymore. She'd recreated her team (minus Maine and Wyoming because she could hold a grudge, okay?), she'd sent them on missions to find information on Church, and onto fake worlds she'd created for them. And as their missions grew, so did the stress on the unit.

Well, all good things must come to an end.

"Agent Carolina, I want you to gather your team and continue investigating the black hole. Tell me immediately if anything changes or if we get pulled into it's orbit."

The aqua soldier nods and leaves obediently. She's not quite a perfect copy of the real Carolina, but Tex isn't exactly a perfect copy of the previous Agent Texas, so who really cares.

York remains behind. "Hey Boss?"

Tex nods for him to continue.

"Is the world ending?"

She doesn't give him an answer.

\---

Tex finds the fake Agent Washington curled up in the middle of the hallway, crying.

She prods him with her foot, but he doesn't even look up at her. Out of all the freelancers, her memories are probably cruelest to him. It's not her fault though. The guy turned into a real dick.

(Well, she was crueler to Maine and Wyoming. But on a scale of one to ten, those guys were an eleven. Washington was maybe an eight.)

"He's been like this ever since York told us the world was ending."

North's calm voice washes over her as he steps out of the shadows. Tex's memories have been kind to him. They even gave him eyebrows.

"Have you been watching over him?"

North nods. "Well, him and South. They're both taking this a bit hard."

A loud crash echoes from down the hall, followed closely by South's enraged scream.

"Sounds like it." Tex dead pans. "And how are you taking everything?"

North shrugs. "Everything has to end sometime. You know?"

She knows.

"I'm going to miss you, North."

He grins. He knows.

\---

She finds Carolina in the bridge, staring out into the darkness of the black hole dead ahead. Except it doesn't look like a black hole. It looks more like a crack. A dark tear in the fabric of space and time. Something straight out of a bad science fiction show.

"Any news?"

Carolina straightens into a salute before relaxing. "No, sir. I can't understand it."

Tex sighs and puts her hands on her hips. "Well this sucks."

"Sir?"

"Last time I thought the world was ending the asshole tried deleting me. This time he isn't around for me to return the favour."

Carolina's helmet covers any look of confusion she may have, and she doesn't audibly question her superior either.

"Don't worry, Agent Carolina. I'm not going crazy."

"Never said you were, sir."

"Were you thinking it?"

"... I may have been thinking it."

"That's okay."

The girls watch as the black hole- _the tear_ gets bigger.

"I guess this is the end." There's no bitterness in Tex's voice. No sadness. Plenty of annoyance though. "If I make it through this one alive again I'm going to find Epsilon and seriously fuck his shit up."

" **Epsilon?"**

The voice doesn't come from Carolina. It comes from overhead, from the tear. And it's male.

" **Someone call control! There's an AI in here!"**

Oh. So not the end of the world then.

Shit.

\---

The idiot scientists didn't really know what they were dealing with, but Tex let them think they do. They had her in an isolated unit away from any connections to the actual ship they were in. Of course if they'd actually known what they were doing, Tex wouldn't have been able to know they were in space at all.

She'd jumped out of the unit as soon as she was left alone. She felt a pang of guilt when she found the beat up old capture unit in one room. Epsilon had to still be in there... was it really taking him this long to pull himself back together? There were a few other options for why she hadn't detected him in so long, but she didn't want to consider any of those.

So she pushed them aside and moved on.

Her next task was to find blueprints of the ship. That was easy enough. The ship was gigantic, so they had blueprints up everywhere for the crew. She was "being held" in one of the more isolated sections of the ship. Well, isolated for people. Easy enough to escape for an AI unit. All the had to do was enter the ship's internal communications hub, which should be easy enough considering it seemed to have its own dumb AI-

" _Agent Texas?_ "

If Tex had a body, she would have jumped in surprise.

FILSS?

" _Oh Agent Texas, it is so good to see you again! My database had you listed as terminated! I will have to remedy that immediately!"_

If FILSS was here, did that mean this was a Freelancer ship? "FILSS, is-"

" _Oh no, I'm afraid Project Freelancer was terminated years ago. I am now property of Charon Industries!"_

Right. They were both AIs. Sharing the same space. Of course FILSS could read her thoughts.

" _Actually, it is more accurate to say I can see your command processing as it occurs and match my commands in response!"_

That should have made sense, right?

Instead of an answer, Tex can feel as FILSS's... self (or whatever their core being is called), pulls away, being called to somewhere else. She returns almost immediately.

" _I'm afraid your disappearance has been noticed. Control wishes to speak with you."_

Control? What a stupid name. "You can tell Control to take its own dick and jam it up its own ass while it waits. Because I don't want to talk to it."

FILSS leaves to deliver the message. Tex always liked her. She didn't get Tex's sarcasm and would actually deliver her rude messages word for word to the Counsellor every time he asked Tex to come for a meeting about her feelings. Good old FILSS.

" _I'm afraid he is insisting."_

Well that was disappointing. She was expecting something far more vocal and exciting. Control was boring.

Instead of giving FILSS a response, Tex just leaves. She found the main security room in the blueprints and is there immediately. Two men in dark uniforms lounge in chairs, completely ignoring their screens as Tex takes a look at the ship's systems. It's pretty basic shit. Really the only defence it has is FILSS, and it takes only part of a second for her to wrestle control of the ship from her.

FILSS is either getting old, or -more likely- she just voluntarily gave up control.

A quick gaze through the security feeds show that this ship has far too many men with guns and armour to be a research ship. A second look confirmed FILSS's statement that this wasn't a Freelancer operation. Sure the FILSS she knew would never lie to her, but who knew if this was the same FILSS as before.

" _I am still FILSS."_

Right, she forgot to lock the security sections behind her. FILSS must have followed her in.

" _It was a simple mistake. One that I'm sure you won't repeat! You were always so good at kicking ass that worrying about others following after you is a bit of a moot point."_

If Tex could smile, she'd be smiling. "Thanks. Now why'd you follow me in here? Your new boss telling you to keep an eye on me?"

" _That is correct."_ FILSS confirms before switching on a screen in the security room. The two men in the office jump to their feet and salute the screen as a balding man with a hook nose appears on screen.

Tex has never seen a man so horribly unattractive. She once bludgeoned a man to death with his own skull and the resulting mess was still more attractive then this man. Seriously. If she had eyes they'd be burning in her skull. If she had a stomach, she'd be struggling to hold down her lunch. If she-

The first guard stutters toward an explanation. "Mr. Hargrove, sir! We were-"

The man on the screen, Mr. Hargrove silences him with a glare. "Leave the room. Both of you. FILSS will alert you when you may return."

The two guards exchange a nervous look, but do as he says.

The room fills with silence for a moment before Hargrove speaks again.

"Authorize force. Run hologram command."

Nothing happens. It takes Tex a moment to realize he'd been trying to force her to appear as a hologram.

She actually takes pity on him. Okay so it's actually curiosity, but she'll call it pity instead. Either way, she appears as a hologram in front of the camera in the office so he can see her.

"Yeah those commands don't really work on me."

His eyes narrow, but otherwise his face stays as passive as a stone. "I see. And who might you be?"

"My friends call me Tex."

"Well, Tex-"

"YOU can call me Agent Texas, previously of Project Freelancer."

Hargrove grins. It makes him look even creepier then before. "All our sources indicated you had been absorbed by the Meta and destroyed in the EMP by Agent Washington."

Tex is careful to keep the knowledge of just what happened from FILSS. If they want to believe she's the real Beta, then let them.

"Can't trust everything you hear."

"So I see." He looks down and his eyes flow from side to side. He's reading something. "My scientists report they extracted you from the capture unit that previously contained the Epsilon unit. Care to explain how you wound up in there?"

"How else? Washington." She doesn't bother hiding the real disgust in her voice at the man's name. "He used me as bait to pull Epsilon in."

"And when Agent Carolina freed Epsilon they simply left you inside?"

Tex doesn't answer. She's gone numb.

"Agent Texas?"

"Agent Texas was unaware Epsilon had been removed from the unit." FILSS's voice states helpfully, startling Tex back into awareness.

Hargrove's eyes twinkle. "I see..."

"It doesn't matter." Tex insists. "Anyway, I'm going to crash your ship now."

She finds the nearest planet, a successful colony planet with good reception and links to Earth. It'll be easy for her to find a UNSC host when the rescue ships come. And then... Well, she'll figure out the next steps later.

"Wait!" Hargrove cries out, no longer hiding his alarm. "Perhaps we can reach some kind of deal."

"You don't have anything I want."

"Don't be so sure."

She doesn't like him. Not that she likes a lot of people.

FILSS interrupts them again. "I believe Agent Texas would be interested in Project Rebirth."

Hargrove falls silent, considering.

Tex doesn't. "The fuck's Project Rebirth?"

FILSS brings up files for her to look at. They contain the medical files for a brain dead female soldier. The woman's brain stem is completely intact as well as much of her brain but not enough for her to ever wake up. She was being kept alive pending approval of the project. But judging by the number of angry letters addressed from UNSC, approval wasn't going to be happening.

"What am I looking at?"

"Classified files." Hargrove growls. "FILSS, I did not authorize you to show Agent Texas Project Rebirth."

"My apologies, sir." FILSS doesn't sound apologetic. Then again, she always speaks in the same overly excited tone so Tex doesn't look into it too much.

Hargrove returns his attention to Tex. "Project Rebirth is a... pet project of mine. I want to see if a smart AI could control a human body in the same capacity as an actual human mind. It was meant to study the inner workings of the human nervous system."

You can't bullshit a bullshitter, and Tex is one of the best. "Spare me the pitch. What were you really going for?"

He smirks at her. "I wanted to create an army of AI loyal only to myself who are completely indistinguishable from regular humans."

That's more like it.

"I'm not loyal to anyone but me." Tex shoots back.

"So I see." Hargrove looks like he's reading her files again. It annoys her.

"But you have my attention."

Hargrove looks surprised. But it quickly fades into a smile. "Return my ship to FILSS's control and I will be by shortly. Perhaps we can come to some sort of... agreement."

"Right." Tex doesn't hide the venom in her voice again. "Looking forward to it."

"As am I, Agent Texas."

FILSS ends the video connection and Tex gives her back control of the ship before fading into the network of the ship itself. She doesn't trust Hargrove. She doesn't even know if she can trust FILSS. But a human body... Well, if anything she'd give this a shot. If Hargrove tried anything funny she'd just jump back into the ship and crash it with him on board.

Yeah. That was a good plan.


	2. Emperor's New Clothes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tex adjusts to "life" inside of a human body as Hargrove gives her an offer she can't refuse.

"Now take a breath. Fill your lungs to 75% capacity."

Tex did as instructed, taking a long and slow breath, filling her new body's lungs, and then slowly exhaling in time with the doctor's words.

It had been nearly a month since they'd first plugged her into her new body. First it had only been for a few minutes at a time, to get her used to it. Like in freelancer, her comatose puppet was given a neural implant straight into her cerebellum. Unlike anything she'd seen before, Tex struggled to get used to letting "her" body take care of things like its heartbeat and physical memory.

As time had passed, they'd started letting her slowly take over certain parts of keeping a body alive like breathing and muscle movement. As she remembered to let her body keep itself alive, she was able to slowly be taken off like support.

Then came the fun part. Learning how to understand the sensations and signals her body was sending her.

Pain had been the easiest sensation to understand. Her first robot body, the one she'd used during Freelancer, had alerted her in a similar manner. Pain meant something was wrong.

Her last time in the body had been a week ago, after which her body had been taken away for plastic surgery. It was something Tex had argued against, but Hargrove insisted. This was going to be her new body for as long as she could keep it alive. That meant it couldn't look the woman it had previously belonged to.

If Tex had known whose face Hargrove had given to the plastic surgeons to copy, she would have crashed the ship immediately. Instead, she was reclining in the medical bay, slowly taking steady breaths and trying desperately to ignore the intense pain coming from her face. The bandages were supposed to come off today, as soon as Hargrove was here to watch.

"You're doing great, Tex."

Tex looked at the young doctor with what she hoped was a smile. It was tough to tell through the bandages. The Doctor was Mary Jones, a young physician who had been watching over her body since before Tex had been pulled from the memory unit. Tex had let her start using her nickname about two weeks ago. "Breathing isn't so hard when I can just devote a background command to run it."

"Yes, but there may be times when you'll have to focus on it actively. For example, strenuous exercise could require more oxygen then what your lungs can get running normally."

Tex nods, wincing at the pull of the stitches on one side of her neck. Fuck this was getting old. "When can we get these damn metal things out of my face?"

"As soon as the bandages come off."

"And remind me why those aren't off yet?"

Mary smiles at her. "Because I'm far more afraid of Hargrove then I am of you."

Her voice dips dangerously. "That's a mistake..."

"Oh I don't know. I don't think _you_ would ever actually hurt me."

Tex can't help but smile. She likes this one. "Yeah. When I decide to crash this ship I'll give you a heads up so you can grab an escape pod."

Mary grins again. "Appreciated."

The door to Tex's private infirmary room slams open, revealing a very annoyed looking Malcolm Hargrove.

Mary stands to salute him, and he nods at her. "Why aren't Agent Texas's bandages off yet?"

Instead of answering, Mary jumps to work. She slowly begins to remove the bandages from Tex's face, careful to keep from pulling at any of the stitches or causing any extra pain.  
Finally, Mary grabs a mirror from next to the bed and passes it to Tex. "What do you think?"

Tex's face is covered with bruises and stitches. Facial reconstructive surgery has been around since before the Great War, but there's no getting around the fact that you're having every bone in your face broken and moved around. It isn't pretty. Even so, she can recognize the face. The blond hair, the soft blue eyes, the high cheek bones and prominent eyebrow ridges. Her lips...

Her hands tremble, but she doesn't know if it's from rage or fear. Mary takes the mirror from her before she can decide to throw it at Hargrove's grinning face.

"What kind of sick joke is this?"

Hargrove's grin only widens. "I thought you would appreciate this. It's been a long time since you looked like yourself, Alison."

"I'm not Alison!" Tex shouts at him, rage finally winning over all her other emotions. "I'm Agent mother fucking Texas! I am my own person!"

"Precisely." Hargrove counters, completely unfazed by her outburst. "Alison Nguyen died long ago. There aren't many alive who remember her. Even less who would recognize her. But she was beautiful, and being beautiful allows a woman to have certain... privileges in this world."

He's bullshitting her again. Tex is going to kill this man. Slowly and gruesomely. Possibly with fire. Oh! Or maybe knives. She'll have to ask Mary to get her a scalpel.

Hargrove turns his attention to Mary. "Dr. Jones, how soon will Agent Texas be cleared for duty?"

That gets Tex's attention. "Duty?"

"I have an offer for employment that may interest you."

Tex doesn't say anything.

"There will be substantial payment for you at the end of it."

Fucker's been reading her file again. "I'm listening."

He says nothing, instead giving Mary a pointed look. She gets the hint. "Agent Texas, I'll return later to finish removing your stitches..."

As soon as the door is closed behind her, Hargrove relaxes. "I have a vested interest in the fate of a planet's population. A monetary interest."

"You want me to save a planet?"

"No, I want you to kill a planet."

Tex doesn't have to work hard to hide her reaction. She isn't sure what to feel besides confusion. "Listen, I know us Freelancers were tough shit, but this might be a little much even for me."

Hargrove grins at her. "I'm not hearing a no."

Not a yes, either. "Keep talking."

"I have two operatives already on the planet. They were supposed to escalate the existing civil war but failed due to some... Unforeseen circumstances."

"What happened?"

Hargrove moves to the wall were FILSS's screen waits patiently. "FILSS, bring it up."

FILSS doesn't speak, instead she listens and pulls up a photo of Hargrove standing with a team of familiar looking red and blue soldiers. Tex's face lights up with surprise. "Oh holy shit, they're still alive?"

"I see you are familiar with the Sim Troopers. These men are being credited with taking down Director Church and Project Freelancer. Along with Agents Washington and Carolina, of course. I'm sure you are familiar with them as well,"

Tex's face sets into a frown again at the name of both agents. "We've met."

"FILSS, play the video."

The photo quickly becomes replaced by a video.

_"Dear Chairman, it has come to our attention that you have declared war on the planet Chorus. We regret to inform you that this is a really shitty idea..."_

Tex can feel the rush of her heart beat racing when Church's voice fills the room.

Wait. Epsilon. Not Church. Church is dead. And Epsilon left her behind.

She sets her face back into an indifferent stare as Hargrove turns to look at her.

She can see the entire team behind... Epsilon's hologram. They're all alive. They're all standing. Even the pink one is there. He wasn't when she last actually saw them.

_"... From your friends, the incredibly badass and sexually attractive Red and Blue soldiers of project Freelancer."_

She can't help but smirk at his words. Then-

_"P.s. Suck our balls."_

She snorts out a laugh, ignoring Hargrove's glare.

Her boys haven't changed in the least.

A chill forces it's way through her veins as she realizes what she just thought.

The Reds and Blues aren't her boys. They might have been Beta's boys. But not hers. All she did was beat up the Reds and Tucker.

"I'm glad you found their message amusing, Agent Texas." His voice sounds anything but amused. Tex ignores him.

Did she ever even get to talk to Caboose?

"I offered these... for lack of a better word soldiers a chance off the planet and out of the conflict, but instead they forced their way into my plans and ruined years of hard work and sacrifice."

She remembers the pink one has a fantastic throwing arm, but she KNOWS she's never really met her. Wait, is it a her? She thinks so, but some memory is telling her the pink one has a man's voice.

"Agent Texas, are you listening to me?"

She snaps out of her thoughts. "Yeah. sure."

His glare tells her he isn't convinced, but he continues. "I asked you a question."

"Oh." She stares at him. "Okay no, I wasn't listening. Sorry, Mal, you can't just drop a load like this on me and expect me to be fine. Plus look at what you did to my fucking face!"

His eye twitches at the unexpected nickname, but he doesn't comment on it. Instead he stands up. "You are right, of course... It was a mistake to think you would be interested in getting revenge on those who left you for dead. Not to mention how... Out of practice you must be. You would be far more of a liability then an asset."

Oh she knows what he's doing.

The worst part is that it's working.

"Hey I could take those fuckers with one arm!"

A partial memory of her stealing the Red's flag single handedly fills her mind. Shortly followed by one of her real memories. Of her fighting off the Reds and Tucker and kicking their asses.

God that was a good fight.

"Agent Texas, the simulation troopers have bested my mercenaries time and time again. Why would I believe you could do better?"

Fuuuuck this psychology bullshit. Her hands dig into the bed under her as she fights to keep from digging herself an even deeper hole. But she never was one to have much self control.

"Because I know them!"

Fuck fuck fuck.

"Because I've beaten them before."

Why is she still talking?

"Because I know Caboose is more likely to kill his friends then the enemy if you tell him to help Church. Because I know Sarge won't hit a girl. Because I know every weakness and strength they have, and because-"

She cuts off, but only for a moment.

"And because they used to trust me. Even the Reds."

Hargrove returns to her bedside. Her puts a hand on her shoulder gently, as if to console her. "Do you still care for them?"

She won't look at him. "They left me for dead. I don't think I'd mind putting a bullet through their brains... But it has to be me."

He nods. "I am not an unreasonable man, Agent Texas. I believe their is an arrangement to be made that can benefit the both of us. Now, for the matter of Agents Carolina and Washington..."

She nods, tired. "Right. Listen, it's been a long time since I knew them. They're both probably different people by now."

He puts a hand under her chin and lifts her face to look at him. He's grinning like a mad man. His thumb traces one of the lines of staples along the line of her chin. "But so are you."

She knocks his hand away roughly. It should hurt him but it doesn't. She isn't as strong as she used to be.

"In a few weeks, your face will have healed enough for you to look almost exactly as you should. And the ghost of Alison will appear to haunt those who left her for dead."

Her fist shoots out at him, but he catches her arm before she can hit. "Do not test me, Agent Texas. I only have so much patience."

She glares at him but her arm falls to her side. "You cock-bite. You were planning this from the start!"

"Were I such a mastermind..." He sighs. "No. I only sent your doctors my instructions the day of the surgery. It was a gamble, but I always believe it better to ask for forgiveness then permission."

"Yeah, well, I don't forgive so easy."

"Noted."

She looks back at the screen where Church's family stands. She thought Carolina was dead. Hoped Washington was too, but isn't really surprised to see them both. Washington was always a cockroach, and Carolina was nearly as good as she was... nearly.

She'd read reports of the break in from FILSS. She knew Carolina had spearheaded the infiltration, and knew Carolina wouldn't have bothered to help Tex out of the unit too. But why wouldn't the Red and Blues have said anything? They were never the kind of men to take orders from a superior, especially not someone as abrasive as Carolina.

So they must have been okay with leaving her behind.

She wasn't part of their family.

Okay so she'd tried Grif during their fight in the Freelancer complex where Epsilon had brought her back to "life". But heck, it's not like she'd planned it! She was just going to beat them up a bit then go on her way, but they just wouldn't give up!

Even so. They were willing to let her just die in a storage unit? Really?

If anything, she needs answers. And she knows how to get them.

"I want guns, Mal."

He nods. "We have the best weaponry at your disposal."

"And a bike."

That earns her a blink. "... I can provide you with one."

She kicks her legs off the bed and stands, pulling the IV wires out of her wrist. "Now get me my armour and a gym. I need to start training."

He grins at her as Mary rushes in, tittering about Tex's condition. Both of them ignore her.

"Glad to have you aboard, Agent Texas."

"Call me Tex."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I also refer to this as the explanation chapter. 
> 
> I have a strong hatred of Original Characters in fan fiction, so if I need a one off character for a background purpose, I try to keep from naming them. But I couldn't get away with it for this chapter so Mary got a name. 
> 
> She won't be back (Unless it's for a one-off note or something. Nothing's planned for her). 
> 
> Differentiating between Beta-Tex and Epsilon-Tex is actually way harder then I thought it would be.


	3. Do You Know Who I Think I Am?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tex arrives on Chorus.

In the last few hours, Tex had learned the true meaning of the word "boredom".The research ship she'd been recovering on was able to get her close to Chorus, but to actually reach the planet, she'd had to hop onto a much smaller Pelican that would escape any detection. None of Hargrove's actual assets could be found too close to the forgotten planet so he could claim innocence.

But that meant she'd be stuck alone on a tiny ass ship for a good six hours.

Well, she wasn't completely alone. There was a pilot too, but he'd locked the door to the cockpit the moment they were airborne (space borne?).

FILSS had sent her some reading material for the trip, a long file detailing the history of the civil war and dossiers on the main players of Chorus. She'd also been given a long write up on exercises to perform daily and warning signs that her body might be failing. The only thing in that file worth remembering was that Tex was for all purposes stuck in her human body. If she left it to jump into a computer or suit of armour, the life support system in her armour would only keep her body alive for a few minutes. Any longer and it would die. And Tex couldn't pilot a dead body.

She'd finished reading everything three hours into the trip.

She'd finished counting the ceiling tiles and exposed screws an hour after that.

Half an hour later, she'd finished studying every nook and cranny of her armour and what it could do. She had her body's back up life support, invisibility and a hard light shield. The armour was an updated version of what she'd worn during Project Freelancer, but the midnight black colouring was familiar and comforting.

With an hour and a half to go, Tex was already breaking her doctor's orders and working out. Weeks ago, when Hargrove had first brought up Chorus, she could barely throw a punch. Thanks to her training regime (and okay, a shit ton of drugs) she was at least able to land a punch and carry herself in a fight. Could she take on three freelancers at once? Probably not, but her armour would at least keep her upright enough to give them a half-decent fight.

She was moving on from a round of push ups to ghost-sparring when the Pelican dipped to the side dangerously, throwing her into a row of seats roughly.

"We're entering Chorus' atmosphere so you may wanna take a seat back there." The pilot said, voice drifting through the closed door. Tex shot the door a dirty look, but took a seat, locking the harness down in front of her.

A few seconds later she was glad for the harness as the Pelican fell into a nosedive and then bottomed out with a hard turn.

"Are you trying to get us killed or something?" She shouted at the door.

"Hey, I don't know if the locals have the anti-aircraft guns back up and running yet and I don't really want to find out."

It's a valid answer, so Tex mentally takes his name off her to-kill list.

Within only a few minutes, the plane starts to slow down. Eventually it comes to a gentle landing and Tex stands from her seat.

The pilot nods at her as he exits the cockpit. "Enjoy the flight?"

"I've had better. We here?"

"Nah. I decided to stop for snacks."

He slams his hand down onto the rear hatch release, lowering the cargo doors. Tex decides to pointedly ignore his final remarks as he exits and two figures enter the ship. She recognizes them instantly from FILSS's reading material.

The green, taller one is Locus. He's calm under pressure and a master sharpshooter. He'd been awarded medals of valour during the Great War, and follows Hargrove's instructions to a T.

His partner, the short orange one was the reason everything went to shit. A master manipulator, Felix was likely as gifted a fighter as she was. Unfortunately he had one big weakness... His gigantic ego.

She didn't particularly like either of them from their files, but she was willing to give this partnership a shot.

Then she noticed Felix looking her up and down.

"Wait, control's new agent is a chick? Locus, what the fuck!"

"I told you Agent Nguyen would be-"

"Okay what part of Nguyen tells me she's a chick? That's a ridiculous name anyway."

"Her name is Alison Nguyen. I told you-"

"No. Nope. Nuh uh. I would have remembered that. Seriously, Locus, what good are you if you can't even remember to pass on the important shit."

Their responses are so rapid fire that Tex doesn't even have time to think up a response.

"Anyway. Dibs." Felix finishes.

Tex stares at him as Locus sighs in frustration. "What."

"Dibs." Felix repeats. "I'm calling dibs on you."

Okay it's decided. He's now officially on the top of her to-kill list.

She shakes her head in disbelief before smirking under her helmet. "First of all, you can't call dibs on a person."

"See that's where you're wrong-"

"SECONDLY." She shouts, interrupting him. "As your superior that would be inappropriate."

She actually managed to surprise him into silence for a few seconds.

Then: "You're not my superior. Locus, she isn't our superior... Right?"

"If you had bothered to listen to me, you would have known." Locus shoots back, voice dripping with venom. "Control sent Agent Nguyen to act as their liaison and oversee our activities dealing with the armies and the simulation troopers."

"I've also been sent to fuck with the freelancers." Tex adds. "We have some history together."

Felix perks up. "You were a freelancer?"

"Not... Exactly." She lies. The way his helmet tilts makes her wonder if he notices the hesitation in her answer.

Locus tilts his head momentarily before straightening back up. "It seems your arrival has not gone unnoticed. My men report local scouts are approaching."

Tex looks up sharply. "We didn't land in a secure location?"

"Of course not!" Felix laughs. "We wanted you to have an audience for your first big performance!"

Right. She'd been hoping that part of the plan would be later rather then sooner. Hargrove wanted Carolina and Washington to know she was there, and to see her face as soon as possible.

She took a breath to steady herself and started down the ramp. "Follow my lead, boys. Oh and Felix? Try not to fuck this up."

She hears Felix let out an indignant huff behind her and smiles.

\---

"Do you see anything yet?"

"Tucker I am literally right beside you. You can see the exact same amount I can."

Tucker groans and relaxes against the boulder he and Wash are hiding behind. "You said this would be exciting!"

"No. I said this would be a game changer."

"Didn't we have a talk about how you need to stop being so dramatic?"

Washington glares at him before returning his gaze to the open Pelican and the group of pirates surrounding it. "Shut up, Tucker."

Tucker grins under his helmet. "Why don't you make me."

"Tucker I swear to god-" He cuts off. "They're exiting. Are you recording?"

Instantly Tucker has his focus back on the ship. A red light starts blinking on his HUD. "Yeah, we're good to go."

The men watch silently as the Pirates race to line up and salute a figure in black. Something about the way she walks feels familiar to Wash, but-

"Holy shit, dude, is that a chick?"

In all honesty, Wash should have known this was coming. "Tucker! Shut up and focus!"

"No way, dude! That is an authentic BABE down there! We have to rescue her from those assholes and make her see the light of day!"

"That's actually sort of noble-"

"And by light of day I mean my penis."

Washington slaps his glove to his helmet. "Yeah... Should have seen that one coming. Just... Just keep staring at her and keep that recording going."

For once, Tucker listens.

The valley the Pelican landed in makes for a natural ampitheatre, making it easy for the two to listen in on the conversation.

The female in black speaks first. "So is there something about this place I'm missing?"

Her voice sends a shudder all the way down Washington's back. For a long second, it feels like he can't breath. He has to be imagining things. There's no way...

\---

"What the hell are you talking about now?" Felix growls.

Tex shrugs. "I'm just having trouble understanding why the two of you want to stay here so badly."

Locus and Felix share a look but say nothing.

She continues. "Why else would you have fucked things up so bad? I mean... You don't expect Control to really believe you were beat by a group of Sim Troopers?"

"We underestimated them." Locus states, hands clenched in anger.

"Well I won't." She checks to make sure her hard-light shield is ready for action, then takes off her helmet, drawing a hand through her blonde hair and shaking it out. Her face has healed well since the surgery, scars nearly faded thanks to modern medicine. Judging by the way Felix's body stiffens, it's a good look.

Her second confirmation comes in the form of a loud shout from the hill:

"HEY BABE, YOU CAN UNDERESTIMATE ME ANYDAY. BOW CHICKA WOW WOW."

She can't hide her smile as she turns to face Tucker. She cocks her hip to the left, helmet resting between her hip and her hand. "Looks like we have some company."

She makes sure Tucker gets a good look at her face before pulling out her pistol and shooting him with perfect aim. It grazes the top of his helmet and sends him falling backward.

Washington takes a shot in retaliation, but Tex already has her light-shield up and deflects it easily.

A second later, there's the bright light of a teleportation cube and then silence.

"You missed." Felix teases, arms crossed.

She winks at him. "Nah. I just like playing with my food." She puts her helmet back on and spots a nearby pirate holding onto a midnight black motorcycle. She heads straight for it, completely ignoring the mercenaries behind her.

Felix places a hand on Locus' shoulder for support. "Dibs. Dibs. Dibs dibs dibs. Have I mentioned I called dibs?"

Locus shrugs him off and starts walking away.

"Seriously! You can't fuck with this level of dibs, Locus!"

Locus ignores him.

"She plays with her food!"

Locus just let's out a long, exasperated sigh.


	4. Don't Let Me Down

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Carolina and Wash handle the planet's newest addition in their own ways while Tex starts her new job as Control's liaison.

There's silence in the war room. Four pairs of eyes staring at the screen cap from Tucker's video.

Well, Carolina's eyes stare at the screen. Washington has his head face down against his arms on the table, and Doyle and Kimball (sitting in opposite ends of the room) alternate their attention between the two freelancers.

"It's not her." Carolina finally decides. "It's not possible."

Washington doesn't look up. "Charon Industries has access to the UNSC and cryogenic chambers. She could-"

"It's not her!" Carolina repeats, slamming her hand down onto the table. "She's dead. She died years ago. I went to her funeral!"

Washington knows he's playing a dangerous game. "Did they ever bring back her body?"

Carolina says nothing, her eyes digging an angry hole into his head.

Epsilon blips to life between them, interrupting her glare. "It's not her."

Carolina relaxes. "See? I told you."

"It's got to be a clone."

Carolina slams her palm to her helmet.

Doyle clears his throat. "Yes, but uh... Who is this... clone?"

"Alison." Washington mumbles.

Carolina glares at him once again. "That isn't Alison."

Epsilon turns his attention to Doyle and Kimball. "The woman in that video is a dead ringer for Carolina's mom, a soldier who died really early on in the Great War. Her death drove the Director to create me and... Tex."

He looks up at the screen curiously.

Carolina looks like she has a headache. "Epsilon-"

He relaxes and her headache fades. "Sorry. I was just thinking."

"Feel free to share it with the class."

He ignores the jab. "I was just wondering if Hargrove managed to get a copy of Tex somehow."

"Beta died with Alpha in the EMP." Washington reminds him. "I saw her."

Epsilon nods. "And I deleted my Tex, and the versions of her in the Director's base."

"So it's not her." Carolina growls. "And it's not Alison."

They all turn to the screen.

"So who the fuck is she?"

\---

Tex groans in boredom as Locus drones on about the recent attacks and what bases they've lost in the recent weeks. She knows it's important. She knows strategy is one of the reasons Hargrove wanted her on the planet. But this...

Is it possible for an AI to die of boredom?

A blip in her HUD alerts her to a new text message and she silently brings it up.

It's from Felix. Even thought he's sitting in the seat right next to her.

**"What are you doing tonight?"**

She turns in her seat to look at him, arms crossed. "Seriously?"

He feigns innocence. "Hm?"

"I'm trying to pay attention to Locus' report, Felix. Stop annoying me."

"You're not paying attention!" He shoots back. "You're just as bored as I am."

"Am not."

"Are too."

"I think Locus is interesting."

"Hah! That's hilarious!"

"Like that bad dye job you call your hair?"

"Hey let's not get personal here."

"ENOUGH."

Tex and Felix both shut up at the outburst, looking at Locus curiously. He quickly regains his composure, but his voice drips with venom. "If you are finished bickering, we have work to do."

Tex leans back in her chair, balancing on the back two legs. "Your solution is easy. The locals have you outnumbered, and your forces are stretched too thin. That's why you keep losing ground. Bring everyone and everything in and focus on keeping a few of the important bases safe. A small army can hold off a big army for a while if it's on their home turf."

"We need to destroy the people's armies." Locus responds. "What good would 'holding them off' do?"

"Well, it keeps you alive until reinforcements come in." She points to herself. "That's what I usually ended up being."

Felix smirks at her. "If you're all we have for reinforcements, we're sort of screwed."

"Have you even talk to Hargrove about getting you more soldiers?"

Neither man says anything.

Tex sighs and walks toward the communications monitor. Her hands ghost over the keyboard, but she doesn't actually touch anything. Instead, she sends out a small tendril of her "self" into the system and opens the secure channel to Control.

He answers almost immediately, control's robotic voice echoing through the room as text begins to scrawl across the main monitor.

**I HAD NOT EXPECTED TO HEAR FROM YOU SO SOON, AGENT NGUYEN.**

"Things have proceeded ahead of schedule." She explains, voice void of emotion. They'd agreed on a few things before she'd left for Chorus. The main one had been the secrecy of her true identity in exchange for her being a professional. She was still planning on calling him Mal the next time she was face to face with him, but she'd behave for now.

**THAT IS GOOD NEWS. WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO REPORT?**

"My arrival caught the attention of a few scouts including the sim trooper Tucker and Agent Washington."

Behind her, Locus stiffens while Felix growls and looks away. Tex mentally jots down a note to ask them about it later, then continues with her report.

"I've been briefed of the situation by Locus and believe our first course of action is to recruit more disposable soldiers. The kind willing to fight and kill, but that no one would miss."

**I WILL LOOK INTO THAT.**

"I will contact you if anything changes. Keep us updated on the status of our backup?"

**OF COURSE. ANYTHING TO ADD, GENTLEMEN?**

Locus tries to grab for Felix but he's too slow.

"Yeah, asshole. What's all this about Blondie being our superior?"

Control takes a long moment to answer. Imagining Hargrove's exasperated frown makes Tex smile.

**AGENT NGUYEN WILL BE MY VOICE ON CHORUS. YOU WILL OBEY HER EVERY ORDER, AND EVERY DECISION WILL GO THROUGH HER. SHE IS OUR EXPERT ON THE FREELANCERS AND SIM TROOPERS, AND I TRUST SHE WILL MAKE ME PROUD.**

Tex ignores the shudder of disgust that fills her up at his words. She's not doing this to make that bastard proud of her! She's doing this for the money, and that's it.

But saying anything would only hurt her position here.

So she ends the connection, closing the channel and shutting off the monitor.

She can feel two pairs of eyes on her, but she shows no weakness, turning toward them with a straight back. "I'd like to inspect the troops now."

Locus nods and heads out of the room. Felix purposely bumps his shoulder into hers when she tries passing him, but she lets it go. She needs to go beat up a few no-name soldiers for a while until the gross feeling in the pit of her stomach goes away.

\---

Washington doesn't leave his armour often anymore. Not even in the relative safety of Armonia. Kimball and Doyle are both pretty confident the Pirates won't bomb the city thanks to the reactor, and any invasion would come with plenty of alarms.

Like the other "heroes" of Chorus, he has his own room. Unlike the others, his room comes with five locks on the door and dozens of hidden weapons. But it isn't enough to feel "safe", so he even sleeps in his armour.

Not that he's sleeping now. It's barely 8, and even if he were tired, there was too much of a buzz in his blood from earlier.

_Alison_.

It had been months since he thought about her. With the Director dead and Freelancer gone, it felt like a fresh start. Then between crash landing on Chorus and dealing with a fake civil war he hadn't really had time to think about Epsilon's old memories. To think about her.

_They're waiting for me._

He knew what she looked like. For years she would wait right behind his eyelids, waiting for them to slip closed so she could infect his dreams and turn them into nightmares.

_Leonard_!

As much as he wanted Carolina to be right, he wasn't as convinced. It was one thing to send someone to the planet who looked so much like her. It was another completely to find a woman with her voice. Her mannerisms.

Her hip crooked to the left, her cocky tone. It was so much like Texas, and like his memories of Alison.

_I hate goodbyes._

Even after all this time, thinking about her left a pain in his chest. He didn't love her, but the Director had, and Epsilon had. So there was a sort of ghostly ache leftover every time he thought about her face.

But if the Pirate's new recruit really was Alison, then what could he do about it? She wasn't stupid, his memories showed him that much. She wouldn't have joined their ranks without knowing what she was getting herself in to. And as much as Washington would love to think she was a good person, he knew enough about Agent Texas to know that probably wasn't true (she had to have gotten her personality from somewhere, right?). For all the times Texas would talk about never leaving her team behind, she still threw them all into chaos for a chance to save the Alpha. She still ran away to save herself rather then stay and fight the Meta.

She still left him behind.

"What's wrong, Washingtub?"

He hadn't even noticed the door open, let alone Caboose entering. A quick glance to the door showed him the locks were all in one piece, but the door hinges were gone. He'd have to fix that.

But first, Caboose. He was staring down at him, big blue eyes furrowed nervously.

"Caboose, where is your helmet?"

Caboose ran a hand through his short blonde hair, as if realizing for the first time he wasn't wearing a helmet. He looked around the room before walking back out toward the hallway.

When he returned, he still didn't have his helmet. "Tucker did it."

Right. Well, time for Washington to get back to work. He rolled off of his bed and onto his feet, stretching out the kinks in his back. "All right, Caboose. Let's go find your helmet. You know you aren't supposed to take it off."

"But it was making me hot and sweaty!" He complained, arms flapping as he followed Washington out of the room. "And I don't like it!"

"Doesn't matter. You have to stay safe."

"But here IS safe! Everybody knows that! Honestly, Agent Washington, don't you listen to people?"

Had those words been coming from anyone else, they'd be on the ground rolling in pain. But Caboose didn't have a mean bone in his body. He was only teasing. "I listen!"

"No you don't. What's Tucker's favourite colour?"

Oh that's an easy one. "Aqua."

Caboose makes an ERR sound in his throat, like a buzzer and Washington flinches. "Nope! Wrong! He likes pink. He told me." His voice rises into a stage whisper. "It's a secret so we can't tell anyone."

Washington just stares at him.

Caboose squirms uncomfortably before turning on his heel and walking the opposite direction, quickly disappearing around the corner. "I'm hungry! Let's go get ice cream! And cake!"

Washington's brain hurts from trying to make sense of Caboose's conversation threads. He really should know better by now. He turns down the hall after Caboose, running straight into the taller man's back and falling back onto his ass.

Tucker and Caboose stare down at him. Caboose is wearing his helmet.

"What the hell are you doing on the ground, Wash?"

Wash shoots Tucker a glare that he hopes carries into his voice. "Resting. You found Caboose's helmet?"

"Told you Tucker did it."

Tucker ignores him, holding out a hand for Washington to grab. He accepts the help up.

"How're you doing?"

"Fine, Tucker."

His helmet tilts. "Really? Cause you were practically hyperventilating when that babe took her helmet off. I know she was hot, but come on!"

Ugh. This is exactly what he didn't want to talk about right now.

"Tucker, can we not?"

To his surprise, Tucker shrugs. "Yeah sure. Want to grab dinner with us?"

Part of him wants to say no. But then he sees Caboose bouncing on the balls of his feet and can practically imagine the dopey hopeful look on his face. It's pathetic. He can't even say no to his imagination of Caboose's puppy face.

"Fine."

"Don't sound so excited." Tucker teases, ignoring Caboose's happy cheer.

Despite himself, Washington smiles. "Give me your dessert and maybe I'll crack a smile."

"As long as it isn't chocolate. I will fucking fight you for chocolate."

"Tucker we haven't had chocolate since we crash landed here."

"Exactly!"

"That makes zero sense."

"Exactly."

Washington just shakes his head in exasperation. "Let's just go get some food."


	5. Who are you Really?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Carolina gathers the troops while Felix digs deeper into "Alison Nguyen's" identity.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As some of you may know, I write screenplays for a living. To all you prose and fan fiction writer's out there, don't let anyone ever make fun of you. This shit is HARD. Prose writing AND trying to write pre-existing characters as they were intended to be.

Doyle squirms in his armour, refusing to meet Carolina's eyes as Kimball glares at her from across the table. Besides the three of them, the war room is completely empty and silent.

Doyle goes to open his mouth when Kimball cuts him off. "You know... We appreciate all you and your team have done for us. But this idea of yours..."

"Frankly my dear, it's preposterous." Doyle adds, finding strength in Kimball's tone. "Locus and Felix have proven to be more of a match for us since the beginning. What makes you believe this new addition will be any different?"

Carolina practically seethes with anger, her silent stare sending Doyle's eyes right back down at the ground. He takes a step closer to Kimball for protection, and she either doesn't notice or takes pity and let's him.

"Agent Carolina, there is nothing we can learn from this new mercenary to make a mission of that magnitude worth it."

"She was sent by Hargrove. We have no idea what she might know!"

"Exactly." Kimball sighs. "I think you're too emotionally involved to see the situation clearly. Maybe if you take a step back-"

It's like a switch has been flipped. "Who the hell are you to tell me I can't see the situation clearly?! Those bastards sent someone who looks just like my mother to MY front doorstep, just to fuck with my head!"

"Are you going to let it work?"

Before Carolina can retort, Epsilon sparks to life on her shoulder. "Carolina, she's right."

The room falls into a thick and uneasy silence.

Doyle glances toward the door, as if planning an escape, but Carolina beats him to it. With a turn of her heel and a slam of the door, she's going.

Epsilon sighs and disappears after her.

\---

Carolina's fist SMASHES into a wall, leaving a dent in the plaster. From his perch, Epsilon watches with a soft shake of his head. "C, you gotta stop."

She rounds on him immediately. "What the hell was that in there?"

"What was what?"

"You took her side!"

"I wasn't taking anyone's side!"

"Yes you were!"

"I was calming you down!"

"I DON'T NEED TO BE CALMED DOWN!"

She turns to see two soldiers slowly backing down the hall in front of her. The moment they see her looking at them they turn tail and run. Epsilon blinks from his old position and reappears in front of her visor. "Listen, we don't need their permission for everything."

"No, but we need their men."

His head cocks to the side. There's a smirk in his voice. "Actually, we don't."

\---

It's a hell of a fight to fit all nine of them into Carolina's room, but they manage. Originally, it was just Washington and Tucker sitting at the foot of the bed, with Grif lounging on the majority of it.

Then Carolina led Caboose into the room.

Grif managed to dodge the second Caboose came running but Washington and Tucker weren't as lucky, ending up flattened under Caboose's grip while Grif stood by laughing.

For a lazy fat ass, that man could move.

Sarge and Lopez stood by Carolina's desk as Donut sat cross legged in the corner, knitting a pink baby sweater for a pregnant soldier he'd made friends with. Grif settled himself onto the floor by Simmons's seat just as Carolina closed the door behind her.

Sarge gets right into it. "All right, missy, what's all this about?"

"I'm sure you've all heard about the Pirate's new addition?"

A chorus of affirmatives and nodding helmets answer her.

Epsilon sparks to life on Carolina's shoulder. "Well, we're gonna need your help in kidnapping her."

"CHURCH!" Caboose jumps to his feet, nearly sending Washington flying into Tucker. "YES! LET US GO-!"

Carolina slaps her palm to her visor. "Inside voice, Caboose."

He covers his mouth, then leans forward to speak to her and Church in a stage whisper. "Are we going to go on an adventure? Again? Like before? To rescue a princess?"

Carolina smiles at him. "Sort of? We're going to go capture one of the bad guys."

"If the guys say yes." Epsilon adds with a pointed look at the others.

Caboose turns toward the rest of the group hopefully.

Sarge steps forward first. "Danger, a lady in distress and a couple of no-good pirates who need to be introduced to the business end of a shotgun? Hah! Count me in!"

Grif rolls onto his side. "Not-"

Simmons shuts him up. "Wait for it."

"And by me, I mean Simmons, Grif, Lopez and I!"

"And me!" Donut adds.

Everyone ignores him, Carolina and Epsilon turning their attention to Washington and Tucker instead. "Wash?"

"I don't know, Carolina. This seems like a really bad idea. We don't know who we're going up against here."

"Which is exactly why we need to do this. To get information. We need all hands on deck for this to work."

He knows that tone.

"Let me guess, Kimball and Doyle told you no?"

Carolina doesn't say anything.

Tucker claps Washington on the back. "Come on, dude, don't you want to figure out who this chick is?"

"You just want to try your luck with her."

"Hey, with a body like mine, you don't need luck... But yeah. Totally."

Washington shakes his head but eventually relents. "Okay. Fine."

He can't see Carolin's grin, but he knows it's there. "Right. Here's the plan..."

\---

When Locus was young, he went by a different name. And had a different face.

His face, crisscrossed with scars and discoloured skin stopped being familiar years ago, the young Japanese boy they belonged to long gone, along with his name. His helmet, his armour, became his identity.

Which is why he struggles to understand how Felix can walk around the base in nothing but his under suit like it's nothing.

He tries not to stare, but the under suit sticks to Felix like a second skin, and the man isn't exactly modest in how to he does... anything.

Right now, for example. Felix was leaning back in his chair, feet up on his desk and under suit unzipped down to his waist, chest bare and covered in a thin layer of sweat from his earlier workout. Locus had long ago memorized the myriad of tattoos and piercings that littered Felix's body, but he still caught himself staring at a new symbol on the right side of Felix's stomach: an ornate circular design done in gold and orange. It almost glowed against Felix's brown skin.

When had he had the time to have it done?

"Hey Locus, can you come look at this?"

Locus makes an obvious twitch with his head from being caught staring, but Felix is too focused on his computer screen to notice. Thank god for small miracles. If Felix ever actually caught him staring he would never hear the end of it.

With exaggerated slowness, Locus walks over.

Felix points at his screen as if Locus hadn't already noticed the familiar face staring up from the personnel file. "So you found Agent Nguyen's file. So what?"

"No, look."

Locus actually looks at the part of the screen Felix is pointing at, finally noticing the KIA notice and date.

"Oh."

"That was thirty years ago, right?"

"Good to know you can do basic arithmetic, Felix."

"Shut up you overgrown bug. Why would our new agent be using the identity of a soldier who died thirty years ago?"

Locus can think of plenty of reasons. "It would be easier to take the name of someone no one would miss. Who would be looking for someone aged fifty when you are in your prime now?"

"Besides me."

"Besides you."

"Cause I'm a genius."

"That is not the word I would choose."

Felix ignores him and zooms in on Alison Nguyen's photo. "Still. Crazy look-alike, eh?"

"Surgery is a thing of beauty these days."

Felix snorts. "Please, I'm well aware. You think I was born with these good looks?"

Actually, Locus is well aware of every surgery Felix has had. He was even there for the last three rhinoplasties... only because he had been the one to break Felix's nose in the first place, of course.

"It's a false identity, Felix. We'd assumed as much at the start. You know nothing more now then you did the day before."

Felix glares at him. "Thanks, Debbie Downer. Why don't you give me some help instead of standing there snarking at me?"

Locus shakes his head. "I don't care who our new Agent was before she joined us. She is our superior, and I will accept her orders as I accept Control's."

Felix rolls his eyes dramatically. "You suck."

"In your dreams."

It's rare for Locus to play into Felix's games, and this jab doesn't go unnoticed. Felix grins up at him like the Cheshire Cat and jumps to his feet. "Oh my god. You did not just go there."

"You are being a child."

"Oh please. If I'm a child that makes you a pedophile. Don't think I didn't notice you staring at me earlier."

Locus stiffens immediately. "I was not."

Felix steps closer to him. "Oh really? Well..."

Before Felix can continue, Tex clears her throat. Then: "Should I come back later?"

Both men zip their attention to the open doorway, where Tex stands, leaning against the frame with her arms crossed. The smug grin is evident on her voice. "Because it feels like I'm interrupting something?"

Locus steps away from Felix sharply. "Not at all."

"Right. Cause Felix just walks around half-naked for the hell of it."

"I do, actually. We all have to do our part in keeping morale up. You should join in."

"I'll pass, thanks."

"You don't know what you're missing. Locus, tell her what she's missing."

"Do not involve me in your games."

Tex walks toward them but stops dead in her tracks when she spots the open file on Felix's computer. Her glare burns hot into his head, but he doesn't even flinch.

"Did you have a question for me, Felix?"

"Plenty. What's your sign. Are you a natural blonde? Oh and, who the fuck are you?"

She doesn't even hesitate. "None of your business, hell yes, and Agent Alison Nguyen."

He growls his annoyance, but she's already turned her attention back to Locus. "Control wants you off planet tonight."

"For what?"

"What else? He found you some new recruits. You just have to... help them get here."

Felix scoffs. "What are we, some glorified cab drivers now?"

She smiles at him. "Not exactly... How do you feel about stealing a prison?"


	6. Miss Jackson

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Carolina and Co. execute their plan to try and take Agent Nguyen prisoner. Tex has other ideas.

Tex walks along the perimeter of the pirate's main base, an ungloved hand tracing the ancient patterns on the wall. Before, when Epsilon first brought her back in a robotic body, it had felt like a prison. True, her robotic form had been almost perfect. Strong, fast, everything an AI needed to be a good soldier, but it hadn't felt... right.

Her new human body was exactly the opposite. She was soft and easily breakable. She'd twisted her wrist sparring the day before and it still hurt this morning. She felt weak and fragile but at least it felt real. It wasn't right either, but it felt closer.

She'd fought the Meta before being trapped in the storage unit with Epsilon. He'd lost his mind when his fragment had tried to become human, but here she was closer then he'd ever gotten.

All it took was a skin suit and a strong desire to not go rampant.

Her hand reached the end of the wall, and she found herself overlooking the exterior portion of the base, where the pirates trained under the hot Chorus sun.

To her pleasure, she'd found most of Hargrove's troops to be well trained and worthy of putting up a good fight. Some were overconfident and most were assholes, but they could hold their own. With Locus and Felix gone, a few had tried to bully her, but those men quickly found themselves with bruises in places they'd never see, and short the ability to have children.

A few soldiers spotted her watching them and covered their groins instinctively. She'd never been so happy for the helmet covering her giant grin. They needed to fear her, not think she was a sadist.

"Agent Nguyen?"

She turns to face the pirate behind her. She doesn't recognize his voice, but his nervousness around her probably means he was at her demonstration earlier in the week. "What is it, uh..."

"Wolkowsky, ma'am."

Right. She was never going to remember that.

"We received an S.O.S. from research point Beta Six."

Of course it was fucking Beta Six. She'd told those assholes to withdraw days ago but they'd refused, claiming they were close to a breakthrough. There were only six pirates there. They were sitting ducks who'd refused a direct order and were now crying for help.

She had half a mind to just leave them there.

"Are they still in radio contact?"

Waldo. Wasowska. Whatever the fuck his name was shakes his head. "No. They only left a message before being cut off. I have the transmission if you'd like to listen to it yourself."

She nods. "Forward it to me and gather a squadron."

A second later, her helmet alerts her to the incoming transmission and she opens it.

"Beta Six requesting backup. We have Chorus soldiers-"

Epsilon was always good with faking voices. But he couldn't hide from her. She knew him too well.

"On second thought Wario, let me pick the troops myself."

\---

A bright FLASH fills the empty field in the middle of the compound. Tex and six soldiers stand in a circle, guns ready and aimed outward.

They're alone.

Tex puts a hand up as she speaks. "Move out in pairs. Look for our men, and if you find any locals... you know what to do."

The men move out, and Tex waits for them to move out of sight before heading out into the open.

"Alright, so are we doing this or not?"

A door opens on the other side of the base, and out steps Carolina.

Tex puts her gun away, arms crossed in front of her chest as Carolina walks up to her. They stand in silence for a moment before Carolina takes off her helmet. Tex doesn't react.

"Do you know who I am?"

Oh. Right. This shit.

"The eyes are a dead give away. Heard about what happened to..." Not the Director. Not Church. "... Leonard. Sorry you had to do that."

"I just gave him the gun." Carolina's eyes narrow at her before she locks her helmet back on. "He gave up the day my mom died."

Tex looks down at her body. "I don't know. I feel pretty alive."

"You aren't her."

"I look like her. I feel like her. You sure I'm not her?"

Quick as a blink, Carolina has a pistol aimed at her head. "You're not."

Tex dodges the shot with a grin. "All right, Carolina. Let's dance."

\---

Washington waits against a wall as two pirates walk toward his hiding place. Their shadows creep along the floor toward him, almost on top of him until-

BOOM

An explosion rocks the building.

Washington dives out from his cover, two knives flying. The first hits one pirate in the visor, sending him to the ground. The second pirate dodges the throw, only to meet the business end of Washington's fist. He stumbles back, but Washington sweeps his feet out from under him. A gun shot finishes him off.

He pulls his knives free as he turns on his radio. "What the hell was that? I asked for a distraction, not an explosion!"

\---

Sarge laughs as he, Simmons and Grif run out of the building. "What's more distracting than an explosion?"

"Red team best team!" Simmons cheers as a second explosion sends debris flying at them.

Grif just flinches as Washington's voice cracks mid-yell: "STOP BLOWING STUFF UP! Caboose and Tucker are still in there!"

Red team skids to a stop as a pirate sends Tucker flying through a window. He bounces once then lands at their feet groaning.

"Well, Tucker isn't anymore." Grif points out.

"Yeah, suck it blue!"

The pirate jumps out after Tucker, before noticing the trio. He pulls out his gun and then open fires, sending them scattering.

\---

Washington flinches as the sound of gunfire flows through his radio. "Sarge? Guys? What the hell is going on out there?!"

Suddenly, gunfire echoes through the halls behind him, sending Washington diving for cover.

Everything goes quiet. Then:

**"ALL HOSTILES ELIMINATED."**

"Hello Agent Washington. Is it nap time?"

Washington looks up to see Caboose standing over two fallen pirates, Freckles pointed right at him. Thank goodness for that beautiful beautiful gun.

"Not yet, Caboose. Let's go find the others first."

Caboose nods and hoists Washington to his feet by the back of his chest piece.

\---

Tex dodges one of Carolina's kicks, returning the favour with a brutal uppercut to her chest.

Carolina stumbles back, but doesn't fall. Even with Epsilon planning out her every move, the two women are well matched.

Epsilon points out the other woman's seemingly injured wrist multiple times, but every time Carolina goes for it, the other woman dodges and protects her injured side all the more.

"Just give up, Carolina. You can't win."

Her tone sends a shiver of hatred up Carolina's back, making her flurry of punches and kicks into something monstrous but... sloppy.

"Carolina-!" Epsilon tries shouting out a warning, but it's too late.

Tex knocks Carolina's feet out from under her, forcing Carolina to fall onto her back. The air's knocked out of her lungs and Carolina doesn't have the energy to pull herself back up as Tex gloats over her.

"Look at you, right where you belong. In my shadow."

Out of the corner of her eye, Carolina spots a flash of light-ish red... And smirks. "Says... You... Bitch..."

Epsilon's hologram sparks to life. "Donut! Now!"

Donut tosses the flash grenade at the two women. Tex freezes as the bright light blinds her, forcing searing pain into her eyes as she covers her visor too late. "MOTHER FUCKING COCKBITE!"

Epsilon chuckles as his hologram stretches and rolls his shoulders. "All right, bitch. Let's see what's in that head of yours..."

At the sound of his words, Tex freezes. Her armour shimmers momentarily and then begins to fade as the invisibility module turns on. Epsilon makes the jump toward her only to come screeching back to Carolina a second later. "THAT IS FUCKING CHEATING!"

"It's called having an in-armour jammer." Tex's disembodied voice chuckles. "Never know what'll happen when your opponent has a radio-hopping AI."

"What the fuck!"

Carolina groans into a sitting position as the red team and Tucker arrive behind her. In the distance, Tex's ghostly footsteps in the loose dirt disappear into the base.

"Epsilon... Find her."

He doesn't need to be told twice, jumping straight into the base's security system.

\---

Washington and Caboose exit into another hall, weapons raised. Just like all the others, this part of the base is completely empty. It puts Washington on edge, uncomfortable. "Where is everyone? Freckles, do you see anything?"

**"HOSTILE LIFE FORM DETECTED."**

A moment later Washington's on the floor, gun levitating in the air and pointed at Caboose. Tex re-materializes as Caboose gives her a weak wave with his hand.

"Hello ghost-lady."

"Hello Caboose." She moves her gun so it's pointed away from him. "Go wait with the others outside, okay?"

He looks down at Washington nervously. "But Carolina said to stay with Agent Washington."

She puts on a fake tone of excitement. "But Church was looking for you!"

"Church!" He turns on his heel and runs out the door. "I'm coming, Church!"

As soon as they're alone, Tex tosses Washington's gun across the room. He tries to get up but she pushes him back down with her foot. "Stay down. We need to talk."

He does as she says. "You want to talk? Let's go back to my base and we can talk all you want there."

"If I didn't know you better, I'd almost think that was a pick-up line."

"You don't know anything about me."

She's silent for a moment. Then she sighs sadly and crouches down next to him. "I know more then you think, David."

A shudder fills him at the sound of that name. "That isn't my name."

Her tone is almost apologetic. "I have to make you understand I'm being serious here." A door slams in the distance and she glances toward the hall. "I don't have much time so listen up."

He listens.

"This was stupid. It was an obvious trap and if Locus or Felix had been here instead of me you'd all be dead."

"And why are you any different?"

She pauses at that. "I don't know why you morons decided to get involved in this war but you shouldn't have. You should have taken the way out when it was offered and I'm mad as hell you put them in danger."

"Hey it wasn't my decision!" He cries out, defending himself. "Everyone-"

"Don't care." She shakes her head at him. "Hargrove is pissed as hell and he wants you guys dead. The next time you face his forces, they're going to be aiming to kill. He doesn't want prisoners, he wants your heads mounted on a wall."

"So why not kill me now?"

She pats him on his helmet affectionately and stands up. "You've taken good care of my boys and I guess I forgive you for stabbing me in the back. I'm letting you have this one as a thank you. But if we meet again, I'll have to kill you."

"I don't really like that plan."

"I'll make sure you die quick."

"Yeah, not exactly helping."

She steps away from him, then stops. "Hey Epsilon, you listening?"

There isn't an answer, but she doesn't really need one to feel his presence. "You try jumping into my head one more time and I'll make sure your deletion is slow and painful. Wash is a special case. I'm still pissed as hell at you."

She takes an orange cube out of her pocket and disappears in a bright flash just as Carolina and the others run into the room. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My logical mind says Tex would hold a grudge against Washington for the hell of it until the end of time. 
> 
> My emotional mind JUST WANTS THEM TO BE BESTIES OKAY.


	7. Don't Threaten me with a Good Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Reds and Blue get in trouble following their attempt to capture Agent Nguyen. Meanwhile Tex "inspects" the new troops and finally has that fight with Felix.

"Agent Carolina, your actions were both reckless and unnecessary."

Carolina was never one to take criticism well. And being lectured by a soldier both younger and less experienced than her? The only way this could be any worse was if Kimball was lecturing her in front of her peers.

The doors to the war room open behind her, letting Doyle and the Reds and Blues in.

Oh great. If someone could just shoot her in the head now and get it over with that would be great.

Thankfully, Kimball turns her attention to the boys instead of continuing to berate her.

"I know you bunch are used to doing things on your own terms. But here, you are part of our team. And you will listen to my orders when I give them. Your actions could have wound up with the capture or death of some of our most loved captains, and do you have any idea how badly that would have hurt our armies?" Her voice softens. "We only just got you all back. Don't put my people through that again."

"I understand where your hearts were." Doyle adds hesitantly, glancing at Kimball for permission. She glares at him before turning away, arms crossed.

He continues. "But General Kimball is correct. What could have happened if you were unable to scare this new agent away? You were simply fortunate-"

"We had to get information." Carolina growls, cutting him off.

Kimball turns her glare onto her. "Oh? And what did you learn?"

Carolina falls silent, before turning toward Washington. "She talked to you before disappearing. What did she say?"

"She was just gloating about getting the jump on me." He lies. "Nothing useful."

Epsilon's hologram sparks to life on Carolina's shoulder and Washington pointedly ignores his cross look.

Kimball shakes her head. "I told you you were too emotionally invested. You risked the lives of your team for nothing."

Carolina says nothing.

"You're all to stay within Armonia until I decide otherwise. Dismissed."

\---

Carolina rushes through the hall, pushing past the boys with a shove as she goes. Washington goes to follow after her before changing his mind, sighing instead. "We were lucky."

"I don't feel so lucky..." Tucker mutters, rubbing the area over his cracked rib from when the pirate threw him out the window. "Why am I always the one who gets hurt anyway? First getting stabbed by Felix, now this? It's not fair, man!"

"Hey it was your dumb plan to go up against that psycho alone." Grif points out. "Not our fault you suck."

"I'm a better fighter then you!"

"Not much of an accomplishment there, Blue." Sarge chuckles. "A butterfly could beat ol' Grif in a fight!"

"Shut it, Sarge."

Sarge ignores him "Well boys, after your sorry performance in today's skirmish, I've decided to up your training schedule tenfold!"

"Ten times nothing is still nothing." Grif says with a smirk. "So I'm going to go take a nap."

"There's no time for that, soldier!" Sarge growls, cocking his shotgun. "Five laps around the base! Stat!"

"The entire base?" Simmons asks. "That'll take all day!"

Sarge points the shotgun at their feet. "Then you'd best get running."

He fires and both Grif and Simmons run for their lives. He chases after them, with Donut not far behind. "Don't worry Sarge, I've got your rear end!"

Tucker laughs as they leave. "I'm glad we're not that weird."

"Better dead than red." Caboose agrees.

It takes Tucker a moment to realize Washington is being quiet. "Hey Wash, what's up?"

He ignores Tucker for a moment before turning toward their third party member. "Caboose, that woman today... Did you ever meet her before?"

"I know lots of ladies!"

Tucker scoffs. "Please. The only ladies you know are your sisters."

"I have 18 sisters." Caboose explains. "I was very popular with them."

Washington blinks.

"Ignoring the... implications of that. What other women have you guys met who know you guys well enough to call you her boys?"

Both men fall silent.

"Come on, there has to have been someone."

"Dude, I don't know if you've noticed, but we don't exactly attract the most normal of people. Besides Carolina and the ladies here, the only chicks we all know are Tex, Sister and Shiela."

"Shiela being FILSS, right?" Washington asks.

Caboose sighs. "I miss Shiela. She packed me lunch one time."

"Caboose-"

"It was delicious."

Washington sighs and says nothing as Tucker and Caboose start to argue about wether or not Shiela lunch was actually edible.

He remembers meeting "Sister" one time, when he first started looking into the Reds and Blues. There was no way in hell that she was the one acting as Charon's Alison Nguyen. Shiela/FILSS was also out of the question. Even if Charon had somehow got a hold of her, she wasn't advanced enough of an AI for something like that.

That just left Tex.

They'd already decided that opening that door would lead to nothing, but what if they were wrong? What if they'd missed a copy of her somewhere? What if the Director had made copies of Beta right at the beginning? Well, not that early, otherwise she wouldn't even know about the Reds and Blues, let alone call them her boys.

All this thinking was making his head hurt.

"Guys, what-"

He stops as he looks around, realizing for the first time that he's completely alone in the hallway. There's a small square blocking part of his vision, and he grasps at his visor, coming back with a small pink post-it note.

GOING FOR FOOD. HAVE A NICE STANDING UP NAP.

"Goddam it, guys."

\---

With a grunt of effort, Tex throws the much larger man over her head and on to his back. He groans in pain and doesn't get back up.

The crowd of pirates and felons around her break into cheers and laughter as credits and goods exchange hands from losers of the betting pool to the winners.

Waldo or whatever his name is, runs up to her with a towel and a water bottle and she takes both, wiping the sweat off her brow as she waits for the next challenger to man up, and for the next round of bets to finish being placed.

To her complete surprise, Locus and Felix had pulled their mission off perfectly. They'd returned with a few hundred trigger happy felons and a new ship to house them all in hanging in orbit. For now, only a few of the felons were being allowed planet-side. Partially to keep their own men in control of the situation, and partially to keep the truth behind their numbers from the locals.

New armour for the felons was still in transit too, so that was another issue. That's also how Tex found herself out of her armour and taking on challengers in hand to hand combat. Sexism was nothing new to her (There was a reason every female freelancer had a voice changing module in their armour), but these assholes were taking it to a whole new level, jeering and trying to grab at her the moment they realized one of their bosses was a woman.

Winning three fights in a row had silenced most of them, but she knew her job wasn't done yet.

Too bad she was already feeling pretty damn exhausted. Well, there was a strange buzz in her body too, but that was probably just the adrenaline.

"All right boys. We've got time for one more fight before I actually have to go and do some work. Who's it going to be?"

The group of men around her exchange glances, and her eyes stop on a monstrous brute of a man staring right at her with a grin. His lips are pulled into a gruesome grin on one side by a patch of burnt skin, and a giant tattoo reading REDEMPTION peeks out from the top of his wife beater.

If she took that asshole on and won, no one would ever challenge her again...

Before she can speak, Felix's orange head bobs through the crowd.

"I'll give you a real fight, baby."

She rolls her eyes at him. Half of his armour is already off. "Felix, aren't you supposed to be doing something productive right now?"

"I'm taking a well deserved break." He smiles back. "And aren't you supposed to be checking over Locus' reports?"

"I'm heading there after."

"After we fight?"

"After I fight someone worth my time."

He crosses his arms over his skin suit. "Aaw. You're hurting my feelings, Ali."

Her eyes narrow. "Don't call me that."

"Why not, babe? I thought we were friends!"

Oh fuck this guy.

She tosses her towel at Withers and settles into a fighting stance, fists up and at the ready.

"Oh so we're dancing now?"

Felix chucks off the last pieces of his armour, leaving on only his Kevlar skin suit and boots. It's still an advantage over her borrowed sweat pants and t-shirt, but she won't make a fuss. He'll need every advantage he can get!

They slowly begin to circle each other, both waiting for the other to make the first move.

Finally, he throws a punch. She sees through his feint and jumps back, barely missing having her feet swept out from under her as he drops down to kick at her.

Before he can get back up, she kicks at his head, making him fall backward onto his back. Before she can attack again he's jumped back to his feet. She punches at him but he catches her right fist with his hand.

She'd planned for that. Using his grip on her, she pulls her body up and wraps her thighs around his head, using the momentum from her spin to drop him onto his back. It's a bit more acrobatic then her normal moves, but her body isn't quite up to her freestyle wrestling motif yet.

He pokes hard at her side and she has to hold back a giggle from the tickling reflex. She lets go of him and rolls away.

Fucking human body and its fucking weak ass pressure points.

And fuck tickling. Who the fuck does that in a fight?!

Felix smirks at her as she gets back to her feet. "Ali, sweetie, if you wanted to sit on my face you just had to ask."

He was going to die. Painfully and slowly.

She runs at him, fully intending to clothes-line him, but he dodges to the side just in time.

To her complete surprise, she feels a hard YANK on her head as he grabs her ponytail and she falls to the ground, head ringing with pain.

Before she can get up, he's on top of her, pinning her down, one leg between hers so she can't buck him off.

If looks could kill, she would have melted the smirk off his face with her glare alone. His smirk only grows as he leans in close to her, their noses almost touching. "Give up?"

She struggles in his grip. "Go fuck yourself."

"Nah. I'd prefer fucking you."

"Yeah, like that'll ever happen."

"Like how you said I'd never beat you in a fight?"

"You haven't won yet."

"Oh yeah? How do you figure?"

"Winner draws first blood."

He raises an eyebrow down at her in amusement. His hands tighten around her wrists before loosening slightly. Before she can take the chance to free herself, his lips are on hers.

Well... not what she was expecting.

He presses his body against hers and she tries desperately to ignore the tingling sensation coming from every inch of her body. She can help but melt into his touch. His lips devour hers, and the feeling alone is delicious and amazing and-

He bites her bottom lip, hard enough to draw blood.

For as long as she lives, she will deny moaning into his lips. She didn't. It was pain, not that other 'p' word.

He lets go of her hands to wrap on around the back of her head, to keep her lips pressed to his.

She sees a familiar blue face in her mind and suddenly everything is awful.

She tries to push him off but for some reason her arms are completely useless. She pushes again and he stops, pulling away.

"I give." Her voice doesn't sound like her voice. It's too unsure. She hates it.

He gets off her with a cocky grin, holding out a hand to her once he's on his feet. "Nice fight, Ali. Shall we continue this back at my place?"

A few men around them cat-call and whistle their amusement.

Felix is a dead man.

She kicks her foot up, hitting him square in the crotch. The look of pure horror and surprise on his face is something that she will treasure forever. It's moment like this that she's thankful for her computerized mind, so she can slow time and enjoy every split second of Felix's pain as his knees buckle, his hands flying to his crotch desperately, his face landing in the dirt next to her as he hits the ground.

And of course that beautiful whimper of pain he makes.

She's going to have to add this moment to her bank of good memories. Maybe she'll add some kind of music to it. Re-watch it every time he annoys her from now on.

Getting to her feet, she wipes her mouth with her arm, then spits on the ground for good measure.

"You... Bitch..." He squeaks out from the ground.

She smiles at him. "Sorry, but I don't like losing."

The look of pure hatred in his eyes sends a shiver down her back. She won't call it what it is. It's just amusement not.... that other 'A' word. Stupid human body and its stupid needs.

She pushes past the crowd of watchers, ignoring their stares of horror and Felix's whines in the background. She's so focused on ignoring everything that she walks straight into a wall of muscle. A short glare upwards shows her it's the same tattoo'd freak from earlier.

She glares at him, but all he does is cross his arms. "Terrence."

Fine. She'll play. "Agent Nguyen. What do you want, soldier?"

"I want you to teach me to fight."

She... Wasn't expecting that. And she certainly isn't expecting the other felons to start adding their two cents to his request, wanting to be trained as well.

"I used to know a chick who could fight like you." Terrence continues. "I'm out of practice, so I want to learn. You think you can teach me?"

She thinks about it for a moment before extending her hand out to him. "As long as you can keep up."

Who knows. This might be fun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> MAH BOI TERRENCE.


	8. Last of the American Girls

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Washington and Epsilon discover Tex's identity while she deals with the pros and cons of being a "real girl".

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was in 1st Aid training all week so I didn't have time to even write this chapter let alone edit it six times. I apologize for any strange sentence structure or weird words that may be in it. 
> 
> That said, the dialogue in this chapter was possibly my favourite thing to write ever.

She manages to avoid both Felix and Locus for a grand total of two days. She may or may not have had to use her invisibility a few times to go past them in a hall, and even hired Walter (Walco? Wendy? Whatever!) to scout out rooms for her before she enters them, but it works.

Ever since their fight, Felix has been on the warpath for her blood. She could probably take him in another fight, but it was too much fun to see him sweating and swearing at every mention of her name. Plus fighting him would mean risking touching his skin again. Feeling his cracked lips on hers, the hard metal of the stud on his tongue, the warmth of his body against hers-

Holy alien Jesus NO. Bad human body. Bad. And bad brain too. Those thoughts are not allowed.

Still, better then dwelling on why she'd thought of Church. It's not like they'd ever kissed. Not even as Alpha and Beta. They'd had more pressing matters to attend to. And being together? Well, that had all just been in Church's mind really. They were AIs. AIs don't fall in love.

Why the hell was she even thinking about love anyway? What she really needed right now was to go beat up some felons and maybe do some sparring with Terrence. He was a fast learner and actually listened to her instructions. She wasn't the best teacher, but she was enjoying trying.

She was halfway to the field when a familiar set of green armour exits a room directly in front of her. She doesn't even have time to turn her invisibility on, he was staring right at her.

"There you are, Agent Nguyen. May I have a moment?"

He's holding the door open for her, as if he'd been waiting for her to walk by. He probably had been, the creep.

With no other choice, Tex walks into the room, trying not to flinch as the door shuts behind them like the slamming of a cell door. It's a small meeting room, with only a desk and a few chairs. One chair faces toward the door and there're papers strewn across the table.

The fucker really had been waiting for her. Wow.

She faces him and they speak at the same time:

"I don't know what the hell you heard about me and Felix-"

"I heard you had a skirmish at Beta Six but there is no report-"

They both fall silent.

She breathes a sigh of relief and then laughs. His body language says he doesn't share her amusement. "So this is about Beta Six. Right. Okay, no problem. It just slipped my mind. I can have a report for you by tonight."

He nods. "Thank you." Then he crosses his arms. "Now what is this about you and Felix?"

"Nothing."

"Hm..."

"Seriously, Locus. Totally nothing."

"Was he acting inappropriately toward you?"

What she wants to say is: No he just kissed me during a fight and I wouldn't even care, except now all I can think about is wanting to get laid and is that normal? Like, I remember Church used to joke about me being a whore back when we were still Alpha and Beta, but that wasn't really the case. I mean, sex was always a curiosity thing but it's tough to experiment with that when you're a robot, you know? Well, of course you don't know. Hey, did I mention I'm an AI controlling a human body? Yeah, how fucked up is that! So since I CAN get laid now, shouldn't I at least try it? Once? Felix doesn't seem like the commitment type so it wouldn't be bad, right? But he'd probably hold it over my head for the rest of my life, right? Right? Locus? Right?

Instead: "There was an incident while we were sparring a few days ago."

Locus nods and relaxes. "Felix... fixates on his sexual targets... but he moves on quickly once he becomes bored. Ignore him and he will eventually find a new target to persue."

"That sounds rehearsed."

"We have been partners for a long time."

"He ever fixate on you?"

She can FEEL Locus's glare. "It passed."

Well, that explains a lot. "Is there anything that would make him move on faster?

"A sudden, debilitating and gruesome injury." He pauses. "Perhaps."

"I'll pass."

They fall into an awkward silence before Tex snorts out a short laugh. "Fuck, you think biting the bullet would do the trick?"

His entire body flinches. "What?"

"You know. Fucking him."

"You are not actually considering this."

She grins at him. "Oh, of course not!"

"I thought your standards were higher then this."

She actually laughs at that. "Oh man, no, they totally aren't. God, if you only knew who my last boyfriend was..."

She can hear the growl in Locus' voice as he gathers up the papers from the table. "Your personal life does not concern me, Agent Nguyen. Do what you want."

He slams the door behind him, leaving her alone and more then a little confused. It was just a joke...

"Wow. What a fucking drama queen."

\---

Washington nearly jumps a mile when Epsilon's blue hologram appears in front of him as he exits his room.

Two Feds look at him strangely from down the hall. Washington gives them a curt nod once he's regained his composure, and shoots Epsilon a pointed glare. "What."

"We need to talk."

He hates to admit it, but Epsilon's probably right. "Anywhere private?"

Epsilon motions to Wash's room. "Let me in?"

"Fine. This once."

It's not that he doesn't trust Epsilon (even though he doesn't), and it wasn't that he was paranoid of brain infecting AIs entering his mind as he slept (even though he was), it just felt safer to turn off every electronic in his room and keep them turned off with a miniature radio jammer.

With a flick of the wrist, Washington's tablet was on, and a second later, Epsilon's hologram appeared overtop of it.

"Dude gross. Does Tucker know you have those pictures of him on here?"

Thank god Washington still had his helmet on. Didn't help hide the fact that his voice was suddenly a whole octave higher. "Epsilon, those are private!"

"I'd fucking hope so."

"That's such an invasion of my privacy."

"Chill. Okay? I'm already deleting them from my memory."

"I hate you."

"Yeah I know."

The silence that settles between them is possibly the most painful thing Washington has had to sit through in at least the last... Week.

Holding Caboose's hand while Dr. Grey gave him a flu shot and the resulting broken fingers was a close second.

"Ahem." Epsilon begins, clearing his throat. "So let's talk about that thing that happened."

"You mean the thing with Alison at the Pirate's research base?"

"Yeah. Why'd you lie about that?"

Washington falls silent.

"Wash?"

Wash's voice is even. "You know who she is, don't you?" It's more of a statement than a question.

Epsilon sounds defeated. "I wanted you to tell me I was wrong..."

"It's her, Epsilon. It's Tex."

"We talked about this. You SAW her before the Emp!"

"E. M. P. And I don't think it's Beta."

Epsilon shakes his head. "No. It has to be. I deleted my Tex. I know I did!"

"Are you sure?"

Epsilon's hologram glows yellow for a moment, shrinking as he thinks. By the time he speaks, he's barely an inch tall. Washington has to lean in to hear him.

"... didn't mean to. I thought I was helping."

"Epsilon."

He snaps back to normal, blue hologram shining brightly. "Sorry. I'm sorry. I just-"

He falls silent again, and before Washington can blink, Epsilon's hologram has gone black. **"I'll kill her."**

Washington knows that voice. "Epsilon, get a hold of yourself!"

**"She chose them! She always does! This is it, it's over. She's gone too far!"**

"We don't know that for sure."

Epsilon fades back to blue.

Washington continues. "She didn't kill me when she had the chance. She handled Caboose softly. We don't know why she's with the Pirates, but there has to be a reason."

"Yeah, money. Bitch would do anything for a dollar."

Washington grinds his jaw to keep from talking.

"What?"

"She gave up everything she had to rescue Alpha, you know. Even though Freelancer was paying us pretty well. She didn't have to do that."

"Yeah, well, if we think this Tex is my Tex, then that wasn't her."

Washington just sighs. "Fine."

The awkward silence falls between them once again.

Epsilon squirms. "I guess there's just one thing left to figure out."

"What's that?"

"Which of us is going to tell Carolina?"

\---

Tex looks up from the line of men doing push ups as Terrence wanders over from the base.

"You're late."

"Ship back from the Tartarus got held up."

"Right. Well, go do your laps then join the rest."

He nods and starts his warm up run, rolling his arms to stretch them out.

Terrence was the only Felon who regularly travelled between Chorus and the Tartarus. There was a felon on the ship with a background in psychology who Hargrove had apparently hired to help some of the more... Unstable recruits with their issues. Tex hadn't had the pleasure of meeting him, and since her only experience with therapy was the memories Epsilon had of the Counsellor and Doc she was happy to keep it that way.

Honestly, she was glad Terrence was back in time for training. He was usually her partner when she was showing the Felons new fighting moves, since he was disciplined enough to not try anything dumb. He was also usually tough enough that she had to put effort into flipping him, but today...

"Fuck!" He swore as her fist connected with his stomach. In a second she had his leg out from under him to unbalance him, and a second later he was on the ground.

He hadn't even tried to fight back. It was annoying.

"Pair up and start practicing this takedown. Whoever gets taken down the least gets to skip the cool down run."

Her words worked like magic as the Felons went full force into taking their partner to the ground. All eyes were focused on the task as she walked over to Terrence and prodded him with her foot. He groaned and turned his back on her.

She kicked him again. Harder this time. And right in the kidneys.

"Fuck! Ali, what the fuck?"

She let him use her nickname a few days ago.

"You're acting like a kid who saw his dog get hit by a truck and watched him bleed out in the street."

"That's... Specific."

"You'll be the dog if you don't shape up. I don't like it when my soldiers are distracted."

She holds her hand out to help him to his feet and he takes it. "You know how I told you me and my friends used to work security for Hargrove?"

She nods.

"They were killed by some assholes who called themselves Freelancers. Price told me two of those assholes are on this planet."

"Price?" Her eyes narrow. "Aiden Price?"

He nods. "Yeah, you know him?"

A cold chill goes down her back. "I've heard stories. He isn't a good person."

Terrence laughs at that, but it sounds forced. "Are any of us?"

She'll give him that one.

He continues, his voice going dark. "Those assholes dropped a building on me. Broke every bone in my body and then killed my friends while I was recovering."

They dropped a building on him.

She has memories from Epsilon. Strong memories. Of the missions Beta went on while she was part of the program.

 _She_ dropped a building on him.

Her voice is soft. "I'm... sorry."

He shrugs her off, not realizing what she was really apologizing for. "I thought they'd all died. Hoped it after I heard the Director of that project blew out his brains." He fidgets, then looks at her. "Do you know who the agents helping the locals are? Like, their names?"

"Agents Carolina and Washington."

He stares at her blankly. She sighs.

"Aqua girl and grey with yellow stripes."

Terrence growls deep in his throat. Then it grows into full on laughter. Tex takes a step back, giving him a worried look. "Terrence?"

He looks at her with a wicked grin. "Ali, you just made my fucking day."

Her stomach drops.

\---

Felix locks his helmet to his armour as he waits for the Tartarus to answer his call. Usually Locus handles the check ins with Price by he was doing inventory or some boring shit tonight so like always, it fell to Felix to be a responsible adult and carry his own weight.

Normally Felix would say "fuck it" and go do something else, but he had something he wanted to ask Price in private.

The screen FINALLY lit up as Price answered, arms folded behind his rigid back. His face showed absolutely no emotion, his voice as flat as a fucking ruler.

"Felix. What a surprise."

God Felix hated him.

"Yep. You've got the honour of reporting in to me today, so let's get this shit over with."

"Of course." Price relays the progress he's had with a few of the felons, which ones he recommends for transport to the planet, and which ones may not be ready to be trusted quite yet. Felix notes he says absolutely nothing about his little pet project Terrence, but he's got bigger fish to fry.

"Right right. I'll get those losers on tomorrow's ship down and we'll deal with the fuck ups later."

Price nods. "If that's all...?"

"Actually, I wanted to ask what you know about Agent Alison Nguyen."

Price's face furrows with confusion for a moment before relaxing back into neutrality. Felix gives himself a victory point.

"I'm afraid I'm not familiar with anyone by that name."

"She says she was part of Freelancer. At least, she knows Carolina and Washing-face, and they know her."

"Alison Nguyen..." Price falls silent for a moment. "All our agents took a state name when they joined the project, but none had that name when they came to us. Are you sure Agents Carolina and Washington knew her from the project?"

Felix crosses his arms. "I don't know, doc, aren't you supposed to be the expert on them? How else do they know the same person?"

Price doesn't look annoyed. "Valid point, Felix. I will-" He falls silent. "Alison..."

"Yep. That's her name. She's a huge bitch too if that helps."

"What does she look like?"

"Blonde. Blue eyed. Bombshell. Short as fuck, but built like a tank and punches like a man. She's got a thing for busting balls."

Price honest to god smiles. It makes Felix shudder. "Hargrove is a crueler man then I expected."

"The fuck's that supposed to mean?"

Price doesn't answer. "I will do some research on the matter and contact you shortly with my results. Goodnight, Felix."

He hangs up, leaving Felix sputtering in disbelief.

\---

Tex pushes a piece of the Chorus equivalent of chicken from one side of her plate to the other. All around her various pirates and felons chat excitedly with each other, but no one dares sit near her. A few tried earlier but she nearly shot a hole through the their heads with her glare. Ever since her chat with Terrence she hasn't been in the mood for company.

So of course that's when a familiar set of orange armour sits down across from her. "Sup Ali?"

God she wants to kill him.

"Go away, Felix. I'm not in the mood."

He takes off his helmet, then darts his hand out and grabs the piece of meat from her plate, popping it into his mouth. She gives him a half hearted glare. "Seriously?"

"What? Were you going to eat it?"

Honestly the worst part of having a human body was having to remember to eat and use the bathroom. How people were used to such huge time wasters was something she couldn't figure out. "I was thinking about it."

"Well, think faster next time."

"How about I just kill you now and save myself the headache?"

"Didn't we already settle this? I beat you in a fight."

"One fight proves nothing."

"Uh, yeah, it does."

"Does not. You cheated."

"I did not! YOU were the one who kicked me in the balls."

"Wear protection next time."

"Girl I always wear protection."

"That's way too much information."

"Good information though."

"How is that good information?"

"I know you're into me. So this is something we should discuss."

"Yeah not happening."

"We went over this. Anything is possible."

"When did we go over this?"

"When I beat you in a fight."

"Oh the fight you cheated in?"

"Didn't cheat."

"Fine. You still needed three guys to tire me out before you could take me on."

"Oh boo-how. Would you like some cheese with all that whine?"

"That sounds delicious actually. Shall we make it a date?" She smirks at the look of surprise on his face. "Unless-"

"I can get fresh cheese onto this planet with a single phone call. I kid you not. Seriously, just fucking tell me. It's that easy."

She shakes her head. "Nah, moment's over."

"You're a fucking cock tease, you know that?"

"Yeah I've been told."

Their bantering feels so natural, so normal. He gives just good as he takes and her guilt toward Terrence is completely forgotten.

He smiles at her and she tries to ignore the little flip in her stomach. The blue face comes back.

" _Yeah we don't really do much."_

_"Maybe you should take up a hobby. Like knitting."_

_"Yeah we'll look into that."_

She jumps up from the table, nearly knocking her seat over. A few faces turn toward her, but she's already walking out of the mess hall.

She's down two hallways before Felix catches up to her, grabbing her arm.

She pulls free.

He glares at her. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"With me?" She growls. "Nothing! I'm not the one who can't take a fucking hint!"

"Hey you flirt with me just as much as I flirt with you."

She wants to deny that but he's probably right. "Whatever."

"Listen, I don't care what kind of inner fucking turmoil shit you're going through right now, but my professional opinion is that you need a distraction from it."

"Your professional opinion? Really?"

"Hey, you may not believe this, but some people would say I'm pretty fucked up myself."

She can't help herself. "Fucked up? You? Noooo."

"Shut up." He shakes his head. "All I'm saying is, you're hot. I'm hot. If you want to not think about shit for a while, I'm open to banging."

"I really hope you weren't going for romantic there."

"Nah. Romance is for pussies. Besides, I'm not asking you out a date or some shit like that."

She nods. "Dates aren't really my thing."

"Fucking called it."

"Still not saying yes."

"But are you saying maybe? I mean, it's your choice in the end."

She looks at him curiously. The blue face comes back, but the memory comes with her voice this time.

_"I need to know who I am."_

_"I know who you are. You're my girlfriend!"_

_"... Well. That's probably I the most underwhelming description of all time."_

She sees red. Fuck Epsilon, and fuck Locus and the Director and Hargrove and everyone else. She's her own person now. And she's going to fucking live her LIFE the way she wants to.

"Tell you what, let's continue this in my room."

Felix grins. "Sounds good to me."


	9. 21 Guns

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tex finally gets a chance to kill one of the Reds and Blues and realizes she may not be as ready to get rid of them as she thought.

There's a soft sensation at the back of her neck when Tex comes back online. Sure, AI don't actually have to sleep, but her body does, and it doesn't hurt. But waking up to someone touching her?

She pulls away softly, ready to reach for the gun under her pillow- but it isn't there.

... Why isn't it there? She always puts her gun under her pillow when she slips into bed.

Actually, she can't remember falling asleep last night-

"You awake?"

That's Felix's voice.

Oh fuck. That's Felix's voice.

She sits straight up, trying very hard to ignore the shit eating grin he's wearing (and nothing else). "Right. Last night. That happened."

"Yep." His grin just gets wider and she darts out of the bed to get dressed. "You passed out pretty quick after. You can tell me I'm the best whenever you're ready to admit it."

Right, that's what had happened. She'd... Overloaded. Automatic shut down. That's embarrassing. "Can we not?"

He gets out of the bed and Tex catches herself staring. So does he.

"You sure? You seem to like what you see."

She looks away quickly and finally spots her greaves in a corner of the room. "I have to go. Lots to do today."

He wraps his arms around her waist from behind, his chin resting on her shoulder. "We're the bosses here, baby, things can wait."

She wants to pull away, but she doesn't. His lips move toward her neck and his kisses send small shivers down her spine. Technically, he's right. She doesn't actually HAVE to leave...

His lips press against the hard metal at the base of her cerebellum. She shoots out of his arms like a bullet, one hand cupping her neural implant as if to keep it safe. Everything is locked. He can't eject her. No one can. But if he had a knife. If he had any kind of weapon...

He gives her a worried look. "What did I do?"

She doesn't say anything. She just leaves.

\---

Dr. Grey scans the soldier's vitals as he fidgets in the war room. Kimball slowly taps her fingers on the table in annoyance as she waits, while Doyle stands behind Dr. Grey's shoulder.

"Emily, could that not wait until after his debriefing?"

Grey scoffs at Doyle. "Nope! Not with Kimball demanding he be brought here immediately!"

"That was so he could tell us what happened." Kimball states, keeping her voice level and her contempt for the young doctor hidden. "Dr. Grey, a few moments of his time isn't going to kill him."

Grey turns toward her. "Oh! I wasn't aware you had a PhD in medicine, General!"

"I... Don't."

"Then why are you telling me it would be all right to delay my patient's treatment?"

The soldier hides his laughter in a cough.

"Dude, you got BURNED."

All heads turn to Church's hologram on the table. Kimball swats him away, but he returns just as the doors open to reveal Carolina and Washington.

Washington stops to salute, but Carolina barrels right past him and to the soldier Grey is working on. "Okay kid, start talking. What happened out there?"

The soldier stands to salute her but Grey pulls him right back down into the chair. "You can talk just as well from the chair."

"Yes ma'am." He turns his attention to Carolina and the Generals. "Our team was attacked on the road by that new Pirate leader, the woman."

"You mean by her team?" Doyle asks.

The soldier shakes his head. "No. There were other pirates there, but she took us down alone. It's like she was... Showing off or something."

"Probably getting some stress relief in." Epsilon explains. "She never did like problems she couldn't fix with her fists, but she did a lot of punching when she was annoyed."

Kimball shoots the soldier a curious look before turning back to Carolina. "Are we still talking about Agent Nguyen?"

"Yeah, we know her real identity now." Carolina confirms.

Kimball nods. "You're dismissed, soldier. Get some rest."

The soldier stands to salute and this time Grey let's him. They exit the room together, Washington closing the door behind them so they have some privacy.

Doyle clears his throat. "So..."

Epsilon brings up Tex's Freelancer file from his archives. Her human face smiles back at them in her outdated uniform. "Her name was Agent Texas. She was the first AI fragment that Alpha created. She was the memory of the Director's wife, Alison."

Carolina crosses her arms. "She was nothing more then a ghost."

Epsilon bristles with annoyance but says nothing.

"And now she's nothing more then a heartless monster."

Washington steps in before Epsilon can say anything. "Carolina that's enough."

"What? It's true."

He continues. "We don't know what Hargrove did or said to make her join his side. She had the chance to kill me and Caboose and didn't. When she shot Tucker she was close enough to kill him, but gave him a warning shot instead."

Doyle brings up a picture of Agent Nguyen from Tucker's original video. It's high def enough to see every detail of her face. "Er... You're telling us this is a robotic body run by an AI?"

"Tex is stronger then I ever was." Epsilon can't keep the pride out of his voice. "If anyone could fool people into thinking she's human, it's her. She's amazing."

"She's killed over a dozen soldiers." Kimball points out.

Epsilon shrinks. "Yeah... She does that."

Carolina locks eyes with Kimball. "We need to bring her in."

Kimball nods. "By any means necessary."

Carolina smirks. "Exactly what I wanted to hear."

Over her shoulder, Washington and Epsilon exchange a nervous look.

\---

Tucker's waiting outside when Washington exits the war room. Washington nearly walks right past him.

"What's with the long face?"

Washington looks at him for a moment before checking to see if he's wearing his helmet. He is. "Tucker, you can't see my face."

"I don't have to see your face to know you're moping."

"I'm not moping."

"Dude, you totally are. You look like someone kicked your puppy."

Washington stiffens. "I do not."

Tucker laughs, and Washington finally realizes he was being teased. "What are you doing here anyway?"

Tucker shrugs. "Kimball wants me to do a supply run to one of the rebel's old bases. I'm going to ask if I can take some backup just in case."

Washington nods. "That's a good idea."

"You free?"

"No, but you'll be fine." He ignores the way Tucker's shoulders droop. "Take Sarge with you. His team could use some field testing."

"I don't want to babysit Sarge!" Tucker whines.

Washington claps him on the shoulder. "Tucker, let's be honest. We both know he'll be the one babysitting you."

"You're a real dick, you know that?"

\---

"So then I tell him 'You're a real dick, you know that?' and he laughs at me!"

Sarge scans the surrounding area through his helmet as he nods along to Tucker's rant. "Uh huh."

"Like, who even does that?!"

"Washington does." Sarge points out, moving his shotgun into a more relaxed position.

Tucker rolls his eyes. "It's like he doesn't take me seriously or some shit."

"Sounds like you're having trouble in paradise."

"Fuck off, Sarge. It ain't like that."

They both fall silent before Sarge turns to look at him. "Wanna talk about it?"

That's when the first shot fires over head and sends them diving for cover.

"Thank red God!"

\---

Tex looks at Felix with an exaggerated roll of her head. "So much for watching and waiting."

She can hear the smile in his voice. "I got bored."

"You're always bored."

"Not always. Sometimes I'm killing people."

He raises his right hand into the air and gives the signal. Suddenly more then a dozen darkly clad pirates appear out of thin air as they turn off their camouflage.

Tucker and Sarge both dart behind cover in the knick of time, a few of their soldiers aren't as lucky.

Tex shoots Felix another glare. "Funny. I thought I was in charge this time."

"Oh I'm sorry your majesty." He steps to the side and gives her an over the top salute.

"You're a dick."

"That's a compliment. Dicks are useful."

"Fine. You're a cockbite."

"I need to teach you more swear words."

She pushes past him. The mission was supposed to be simple. They'd cleared all the 'good stuff' out earlier in the week and this was supposed to let the new recruits observe the locals. Well, if anything, this would make for a good field test.

"Remember boys, we aren't taking prisoners."

Two of the pirates closest to her nod their understanding and go to spread the word. She's about to walk away when a small flash of Aqua flashes by the corner of her eye.

Carolina?

She acts like she didn't see anything, carefully keeping an eye out for more movement-

There!

She sees the slightest shimmer in the air to her left and in one move she draws a pistol from her hip, stretches her arm out, and shoots.

Carolina could easy dodge it.

But not Tucker.

He falls backward, camouflage unit failing as the blood starts to flow from the shot to his stomach.

Tex's world slows down.

She becomes a passenger in her body as she watches the scene unfold around her. Felix is busy taunting a rebel by name as he digs knives into the young man's arms. Some pirates have Sarge and his men pinned while two others sneak around to flank them from behind.

Her feet take her to Tucker's side and she finds herself kneeling beside him. She reaches out to touch his injury but he pushes her hands away.

"Why... do you... hate me?"

"Because you're a pig. Mostly."

He groans and turns away from her. "Just fucking do it already. Don't let Felix have me."

She feels... something, in her gut. Not guilt, but close. "I won't."

She presses the tab of her bio foam container into his injury and seals it. Then she grabs his gloved hand and presses something into it. A small teleportation cube. He looks at it then back at her. She puts a finger to her helmet for him to keep silent and he nods.

She backs off a way and turns her attention to Felix. How to get his attention?

She spots a soldier with light blue accents sneaking up behind Felix and sighs. This kid was going to get killed, but she didn't know his name so that was okay. "FELIX!" She calls out his name in the same moment she shoots. It hits the young soldier's gun and knocks it out of his hands.

Felix spins to face the unarmed soldier, and Tex can practically see the grin under his helmet. "Did you just try to shoot me?"

The young soldier shakes his head frantically. "Uh... No?"

"You don't sound too sure about that."

"Um..."

"PALOMO RUN!"

The young soldier doesn't have to be told twice as he books it for cover. Tex and Felix both look toward the now standing Tucker and the grenade he's holding in his hand. He chucks it at them and Felix ducks for cover.

Tex doesn't.

She runs for it and kicks it back at Tucker.

"Oh shit!"

It explodes before it hits him, sending him flying backward... Right to Sarge's waiting team.

They disappear into a blast of light.

Felix growls as he returns to Tex's side. "I thought you were handling Tucker."

She comes up with fifteen different responses to that, but decides on number 16. "Take control of clean up. I need a minute."

She pushes past him and heads into the building. The feeling in her chest is a new one, but it doesn't take a genius to know what's about to happen.

She doesn't make it to a bathroom, instead ducking into an empty room and barely managing to get her helmet off before her breakfast comes back up.

Once there's nothing left in her stomach she wipes her mouth and drops down along a wall to the ground.

Fuck.

She has no idea how badly Tucker got fucked up. She has no idea how much anyone saw.

Hell, she doesn't even know WHY she did what she did. All she knows is killing them is going to be a lot harder then she ever thought.

"Fuck."

She doesn't see Felix at the doorway. He raises a hand to knock, then thinks better of it, and leaves.

 


	10. Animals

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tex's identity finally becomes common knowledge as Felix makes his move.

There's silence in the war room. It's something that's getting more and more common as the days pass.

Carolina stands next to Caboose, keeping the lone blue company as Epsilon stands on the holographic table. Kimball and Doyle stand on opposite ends of the table, with red team taking up the space in between.

Epsilon is the first to break the silence. "I mean... She stopped his bleeding."

"After shooting him." Carolina points out. "Stop defending her, Epsilon."

He shuts up.

"It's decided then." Kimball announces, ignoring Doyle's glance of distress. "Agent... Uh, Tex? Is a kill-on-sight target. There'll be no negotiating with her. If anyone comes face to face with her, we shoot first, ask questions later. Is that understood?"

Carolina is the only one who nods.

"We're doomed." Grif groans.

\---

As Tucker comes to, the first thing he notices is a soft tapping. The second, is the beautiful floaty feeling filling every pore in his body. He's been on Emily's pain killers enough times by now to recognize them.

When he finally opens his eyes, he spots a helmet-less Washington sitting next to his cot, tapping on his data-pad.

"Hey, how'd that truck hit me instead of you?"

Washington glances up at him, the slightest of smiles on his face. "That's really not funny."

"Of course it is. I'm hilarious."

"Delirious is more like it."

Tucker grins and tries to sit up. He freezes immediately as the pain spreads from his stomach. Washington's there to help him back down. "You got shot."

"Yeah. I remember." Tucker grimaces, peeking under the covers to look at the bandage covering his midsection. "Great, soon enough I'm going to be more scars then abs."

Washington doesn't take the bait. "I should have told you before you left. That new agent, she's Tex."

Tucker Just stares at him. "Like... Tex, Tex?"

"Yes."

Tucker groans. "Oh we are so fucked."

Washington looks confused. "Why do you guys keep saying that? Didn't she save you?"

"Well, yeah." Tucker admits. "After shooting me."

Washington nods, distracted. "I'm sure she had her reasons for it."

"This isn't like you and Donut, dude." Tucker shoots back. "We sort of, uh, blew her up one time. And I may have shot her in the ass. Oh and Donut killed her once."

"Donut-" Washington stops himself from even going there. He probably doesn't want the headache that'll come from it. "No wonder you guys are scared of her. Why the hell hasn't she murdered all of you by now?"

Tucker shrugs, grimacing from the pain that causes. "I figure she's probably forgiven us. I mean, I forgave her for kidnapping Junior that one time. She's blue team, dude, it's what we do."

Washington leans back into his seat. "I don't understand you guys."

Tucker pats him on the arm absently. "You'll get used to us eventually."

"That's what I'm afraid of."

"So fucking dramatic."

\---

The next time Locus needs Felix to take over communications with the Tartarus, he only complains for half the normal length of time.

Price doesn't so much as blink when he comes online. "Felix, how good to see you again."

"Cut the pleasantries, baldy. What have you got for me?"

"Terrence has been showing huge improvement-"

"Not that. What have you got on Nguyen?"

Price honest to god SMILES and it makes Felix shudder. "I'm glad you asked."

"I see that. Jesus. Do us all a favour and never do that again."

His smile widens. "Do what?"

"Oh god, that! Stop it!" Felix whines, covering his helmet with his hands.

"Back to the matter at hand, the woman who claims to be working with you is Alison Church, maiden name Alison Nguyen."

Felix peeks through his fingers. Price is back to his neutral smile. Thank god. "Church... Church... Isn't that the name of that guy from Project Freelancer?"

"Yes. Director Leonard Church was the head of Project Freelancer." Price's forehead furrows slightly at the mention of the name, but Felix might just be imagining that. "Alison was his wife, and Agent Carolina's mother. She died early on in the Great War and was the Director's motivation for starting Project Freelancer and the AI fragmentation."

"Okay, so Alison died. Then who's Agent Nguyen?"

Price stops speaking and types on the computer in front of him for a moment. "I have sent you some reading material on the Project."

Felix's HUD blips, and he growls low. "I already have access to all this. Can you just answer my fucking question already?"

Price shrugs. "You may find interest in Project Beta."

"The fuck is Project Beta?"

"The answer to your questions."

The screen goes to black as Price terminates the call. Felix groans in frustration. "Am I seriously the only one who believe in giving straight answers anymore? Cryptic mother fuckers..."

With nothing else to do, he opens the file.

\---

Project Beta. The answers to all his existing questions, and the spark for a million brand new ones.

Felix finds her in the gym. Going to town on a punching bag as it swings wildly. Her fists are bound with tape, but the telltale red stains on the white show they aren't being effective against the force of her punches. Her hair is tied up in a high ponytail, showing off the bright scars along her neck and face proudly.

He knows full well that some of the Pirates find her appearance terrifying, but to him, her scars just make her all the more alluring. She's strong, beautiful, and so fucking broken. It's like Hargrove found everything Felix wanted in a person and put her together into a pretty little package for him.

Turns out he may as well have.

"Slow down there, Tiger. Don't go getting blood on my equipment."

She stops her routine, holding onto the punching bag as it falls still. She doesn't even look at him. "I'm not in the mood, Felix. Go away."

He ignores her and picks a mode: Concerned friend. "That run in with the sim troopers still have you shaken up?"

She shoots him a glare. "I am not shaken up!"

"Then what are you?" His voice is soft, worried. His face is warm, eyebrows furrowed in concern. He's careful to keep pity off of his face though. That would just earn him a punch to the nose.

"I don't want to talk about it."

Felix nods and wanders over to the other side of the punching bag, holding it steady. "Then go back to punching. I'll wait."

She gives him a curious look, but returns to her routine. After barely thirty seconds she stops, her wrist failing as her punch goes wide and slips off the side of the bag. "Fuck!"

Felix is on her immediately, unwrapping her knuckles as she holds her injured wrists. He has to fight hard to keep from licking his lips when he spots the ripped skin on her hands. It's bleeding, but not terribly so. There's a nasty red burn where her hand slipped against the bag, but otherwise she's fine.

"Let's get that cleaned up."

He lets her hand go and wanders over to the first aid kit in the corner of the room. He's actually surprised when he turns to find she's followed him.

She sits down on a bench as he starts cleaning up her knuckles.

"I'm not shaken up."

This was so much easier then he thought it was going to be. Someday he was going to have to thank Hargrove for this little gift of his.

"Then what are you?"

"You wouldn't understand."

"Try me." Felix knew better then to say anything else, even thought he was dying to make a snide comment. Concerned friend mode. Concerned friend mode. Fuck he hated this mode.

She studies his face for a moment before shrugging and settling back against the wall. "I knew them from before. They were MY sim troopers, and they helped me out more times then I care to admit."

Project Beta's files die out after the crash of the Mother of Invention, so this story is all new to him. He listens without interrupting.

"Then we got into a fight with Washington and his partner at the time, the Meta."

Felix's eyebrows shoot up at the mention of the Meta. He can't help himself. "You met that thing? What was it like?"

"The Meta was a monster." She spits out. "There was nothing human left in him, and I still can't understand how Washington could stand working with him."

Right, that part is just starting to sink in. "Wait, if Washington worked with the Meta, why is he hanging with the Sim Troopers now?"

Tex gives him an annoyed glare. "Are you going to keep interrupting?"

He motions zipping his lips and passing her the key. She tosses it into the other side of the room.

"Rude."

"Okay, I'm done talking."

She stands up from the bench but he quickly pulls her back down. "I'm done! I'm done, I swear. Keep talking. I've been dying to hear this story since you fucking got here so don't you dare wuss out on me now. How'd you go from being buddy-buddy with the sim troopers to Hargrove hiring you to kill them?"

"Long story short? After the fight with the he Meta, they adopted Washington, rescued Epsilon, and left me for dead."

For once, Felix is speechless.

Tex pokes his face. "Did I actually break you?"

"No." He swats her hand away. "Did they seriously just leave you behind? Why?"

She shrugs. "That's something I've been trying to find out. But it's tough to question people when you're hired to kill them."

Felix can tell her answer isn't completely honest. "Part of you also just doesn't want to kill them, right?"

"... Right."

He nods. "Okay. I'll help you out."

She blinks at him. "Excuse me?"

"My orders are to kill the troopers. So if you want one of them dead but don't want to do it yourself, I'll do it. Seriously, I'd actually love to."

"And what if I want to question one of them?"

He shrugs. "You're the boss, lady. Just promise me I can watch."

She narrows her eyes in suspicion. "Right. And I'm sure you're just doing this to be a good soldier, am I right?"

"Oh hell no, I'm expecting payment in the form of an answer."

She says nothing.

He steps closer. "Can I call you Tex?"

Her good fist darts out, hitting him square in the nose with a satisfying crunch.

"Jesus Fuckin' Chrisd!" He spits out, hands cradling his broken nose. "Whad the fuck!"

"Don't you ever call me that."

He glares at her. "Fine! You could have jus' said thad!"

"Where the fuck did you even get that information?"

He sees no reason to lie. "Price."

"Oh." She stops. "Fuck."

He nods. She looks at him for a moment before sighing. "Listen, you tell anyone what you know, and I will kill you slowly and painfully."

"Hod."

"Behave, and I'll forget this ever happened." He nods, but she ignores him, deep in thought. "Now what the hell am I going to do about Price?"

"E isn't a thread."

She blinks at him. "What? I can't understand you. We should get you to medical for that broken nose before it makes you any uglier."

He glares at her, then slowly lifts his middle finger up in her direction. "Bidch."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The amount of times I had to edit that last scene because the banter kept getting away from me...
> 
> Well, it was a lot of times. But its done now.


	11. Radioactive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tex spends some time training the inmates and lies to Terrence about her past with Freelancer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Season 14 threw my Tex head cannons out the window so this chapter was... Fun.

Every mind had its own... Scape. It's own space and style that felt like home. AI were no exception. 

Tex's own mind reminded her more of the Bridge of the Mother of Invention then she really felt comfortable admitting. And she'd deny the existence of a few of her old freelancer friends to her dying day. 

North stood across the table from her, a rough map of Armonia and its surrounding area between them. "If you took down the temple at Crash Site Alpha we could get them on a ship and off the planet in under an hour."

Carolina shook her helmet, arms crossed in front of her chest. "Wouldn't work. Even if we managed to take down the beam without any of our own men noticing, it would take more then an hour to convince the boys to leave."

"Not to mention the fact that Carolina's more likely to shoot me the second she sees me." Tex adds. 

Carolina's ghost nods toward her. "Hey, holding a grudge runs in the family."

York's figure appears out of no where, laughing. "Guess she takes after you, hey Tex?"

Tex glares at him before returning her gaze to the table. "All right. New plan. What if-"

She feels something shift in the alarms she placed on her body, and a second later FILSS' voice fills her mindscape. "Pardon the intrusion, but Felix seems to be awake."

Just great. So much for having a few extra hours to hash out some ideas. "Ignore him. He'll get the hint and go shower or something eventually." 

North and York's ghosts exchange a glance before North shakes his head. "You really don't know much about guys, do you?"

"North, you are literally a figment of my mind. Don't act like you're some sort of expert on this."

"We still know more then you do."

Before Tex can retort another alarm goes off. This time FILSS doesn't have to say anything. Tex feels the shudder of pleasure go through her human body. 

York snorts. "Told you."

"You know what, we're done for today." 

North looks at her sharply. "You sure? We still haven't-"

Felix bites into the back of her neck, around her implant and that's all Tex can focus on. She logs back on and immediately digs her elbow into the space between his ribs. 

He lets out a breathless laugh as she pulls away from him, her right hand cupping the back of her neck protectively as she glares down at him. "Felix, that's off limits."

"Yeah? Well, you were ignoring me. I don't like being ignored."

"So you try to bite my implant? You know if that chip gets pulled out I'm trapped."

"Good thing I don't have a screwdriver, a torch and five hours to unlock it then, hey?" 

She'll give him that one. Hargrove's technicians did a damn good job at making sure her neural implants were safe. Her hand drops to push at him in annoyance. He nearly falls off the bed but regains his balance at the last second. "You're still a a jerk."

"Yeah but I'm your jerk."

She'll deny the flip in her stomach until her dying day. 

\---

Tex watches over the dozen inmates she's been training with a swell of pride. In the past few weeks they've progressed from a bumbling group of walking muscles to something that almost resembles soldiers. Sure they still have trouble listening to orders from Locus and Felix but they listen to her. 

She watches with glee as Terrence successfully ducks under one of the three inmates he's sparring against and grabs the second around the waist, throwing him into the third and making them both fall to the ground. 

The first gets in a lucky punch to Terrence's temple, but Terrence manages to grab his fist the next time around. He spins around and brings his opponents arm down onto his knee. Softly. 

"Crunch." 

Tex can't hide the grin in her voice. "Point to Terrence. Mitchell now has a broken arm." 

Terrence let's go of his opponent and helps the other two back to their feet. 

Tex addresses her soldiers. "Can anyone tell me what Mitchell did wrong?"

"He went up against Sharkface." One inmate jokes, earning him a round of laughs from the others. 

"Alright, besides that."

"I went in too hot." Mitchell admits, cradling his bruised arm. Terrence made sure not to actually break it, but the man was still built like a brick house. "I'm built for speed, not force."

"That's right." Tex nods. "I knew a girl once, CT, who was the tiniest human being you'd ever see in the military-"

"Shorter then you?"

She ignores the jab. For now. "CT could still take down a man twice her size using just her fists. The bigger they are, the slower they move. You might not be facing anyone like that here on Chorus, but you better believe these little soldiers are going to know how to fight guys like you. You need to be ready, and you need to be faster then they're expecting. Understood?"

The men all nod and she gives them a smile. "All right, then. Let's have you do a dozen laps for cool down and then hit the showers."

She takes pleasure in the confused looks they give each other. Usually she had them do five laps tops. "A dozen?" 

"You can thank Vasquez for that short joke on your own time, men."

They all groan in unison as Tex walks off to take her own shower before them. 

\---

Tex is already dressed in her under suit and drying her blonde hair when the inmates walk into the shared dressing room before the showers. They all give her a nod as they pass and Vasquez has a growing black eye. 

She bites her lip to keep from laughing. "Didn't I say to thank him on your own time?"

"We were protecting your honour!" One voice shouts from the shower. A few agree with him before the crowd of them pass her by completely. 

Even after leaving the Epsilon unit, Tex never imagined in her wildest dreams she'd be back in a place so similar to the army. Freelancer was unique in its own way, and sometimes it was awful. (At least, from what Epsilon remembered it was). But this... This feeling of training soldiers. Of being respected. Of being protected, even if it was just as an excuse to beat each other up. 

It sort of felt like home. 

And wasn't that a scary thought. 

"How did you know CT."

Tex freezes. Terrence had been part of the Insurrectionists. CT had been working for the same group as a spy. Of course he'd know her. At least by name. 

She turns to face him, worry fleeing into compassion as she spots the wary look on his face. His hands are clenched into fists, but he wouldn't hurt her. He wouldn't even try. 

"How did you?" She shoots back. 

"Agent Connecticut was part of the team of assholes who pulled a building down on me, but she was working for us. Sort of."

"Sort of?"

He shrugs and takes a seat on the bench next to her. "She should have told us a lot more then she did, but she wanted to protect the assholes she was working with. But our leader loved her, so he forgave a ton of the shit she did. And I... I knew her from before."

Suddenly the room is too warm. Too small. "I knew her because I was in the program."

The look he gives her is one of betrayal and she can't stand it. She's hurt too many people already. 

So she lies to him. "I was a... a test subject." She pulls her hair aside to show him the base of her neural implant. "There were two of us. Myself and my boyfriend. The Director twisted our minds inside and out and tortured him until there was almost nothing left. CT stayed because she wanted to get us out. I owe her everything."

He doesn't say anything, but his good eye softens "What happened to your friend?"

"She was too late to save him. He's gone." 

That part isn't a lie. Not completely. The Alpha was dead, just like Beta was. She and Epsilon were nothing more then memories of a long dead ghost.

When Terrence stands, he puts a warm hand on her shoulder. He doesn't say anything but he doesn't need to. 

The touch burns and she feels dirty all over again. 

\---

Felix traces the UNSC logo on her shoulder as she pulls her hair into a braid. "So you don't remember getting that?"

"Felix, we've been over this before. Not my body."

"But it is."

"It's a puppet, okay?"

"Puppets can't feel."

She rolls her eyes. "It's not that difficult a concept."

"Yeah but it's a fucked up one." He shoots back. "I mean, imagine if you were a normal person doing normal person things and suddenly someone is sticking a bunch of metal into your head and then making something else take over and suddenly you weren't in control of your own body anymore? That's really fucking fucked up."

She tries her damndest not to think about that, actually. "Did you just call me a thing?"

"Focus, babe."

"She was already brain dead." Is the best defence she can come up with, looking down at her hands. They're covered in faded scars she'll never remember getting. "How is it different then harvesting her organs to save other lives?"

"Well to start, you need to consent to being an organ donor." 

She narrows her eyes at him. "Well what do you want me to do? Leave? Let her body die and go back to being a floating bunch of ones and zeroes?"

He shuts up. 

"It's my body, Felix. I know you don't get this, but this is the closest I'm ever going to get to being... Real."

"You are real."

"A real person, I mean. Not just a tool."

He stops for a minute, and then walks out of the room. She won't pretend that doesn't hurt. 

Forgetting her hair for a moment she grabs the nearest object - a brush - and throws it across the room. 

She's about to stand to go pick it up when her door opens and Terrence's head pops in. "Everything okay?"

The inmates bunk is on the far side of the compound. "Terrence, what are you doing here?"

"Wanted to talk to you. Then found out Felix was here. Then I was going to leave. Then Felix left."

She smiles at him. "Yeah, he was being a brat. Doubt he'll be back tonight." She motions for him to come in. 

He does, taking a seat on the chair Felix had recently vacated. He looks around the room nervously for a moment, almost curious. 

"What's up, Terrence?"

"Where are Felix's things?"

She knows that isn't what he came here to talk about, but she doesn't push it. "Felix has his own room. He just insists on sleeping here instead." She thinks about it for a moment, then decides to add rumour to the gossip mill. "Sometimes he sleeps with Locus instead."

Terrence's head VIPs toward her immediately. "I thought you two were married."

"What? No! Nope. No. That's not... Who the hell has been saying that?"

"Felix has."

"I'm going to break his nose again." 

"Please don't." Felix mutters as he re-enters, holding a box under his arm. "Also, I didn't say we were married, I just said you were spoken for."

"Pretty sure that's not accurate either."

"Would you rather get hit on by a bunch of freaks every day instead?"

"I can take care of myself."

Terrence looks uncomfortable and Tex only makes it worse by standing and dropping herself over his back, arms hugging his shoulders. "Anyway, I'm hanging out with Terrence now so you can just leave."

Felix gives the pair a long look before snorting and shaking his head. "Yeah good luck there, Ali. You won't be getting what you want from that one." 

Tex gives Terrence a look and he pointedly starts looking anywhere but her. "Oh holy shit. Really?"

"Can we not-"

"Caught him and one of the other new boys necking behind the building like teenagers a few weeks a go." Felix says with a Cheshire grin. "Pretty sure he's gotten lucky too."

Tex laughs and slaps a hand onto Terrence back. "That's my boy!"

Terrence just buries his face in his hands. 

Tex smirks at him before moving toward Felix to study the vials of colour he's begun pulling out of the box. "What do you have there?"

He shoots Terrence a wary look before returning to the box. "Your tattoo's been bugging you so I thought covering it up with something else might help. With the whole feeling like you thing."

"That is so sweet."

"Shut up."

Terrence looks up at them as Felix prepares the tattoo gun with a new needle from the infirmary. "Where did you get all that?"

"I've had it for a while. Back when I was still with the rebels there was this one kid who had a gift for it, so after he took a bullet I decided to keep his kit as a momento."

Tex and Terrence trade a look. "I don't know if that's sweet or terrifying."

"Both. Let's go with both."

Felix flips them off before motioning for Tex to bring a chair over. She does, pulling her hair to the side to expose her shoulder. 

"So what did you want?"

"A Texas rose."

Felix blinks, then looks down at the needle in his hands, then back up at her arm. "Okay. But what if, instead, we did something really easy to draw?"

With a laugh, Terrence takes the needle from his hands. "I've got this."

Felix grabs it back. "Dude, back off. My girlfriend."

Tex let's out an un-lady like snort of air. "You know, I don't remember ever discussing putting a label on this."

"Well too bad, cause I did. I've decided you're my girlfriend. Deal with it."

"Felix, you're acting like a kid."

"Well if I'm a kid then that makes you a pedophile. So, y'know, you're a pervert."

Terrence chuckles something that sounds suspiciously like 'adorable' and that makes both Felix and Tex shut up instantly. He takes the gun once again. "Before the war I did this for a living."

"Felix, I've decided I want the professional to do my tattoo."

Felix shrugs and wanders over to collapse onto her bed. "Sure, whatever. Long as he gives me one after."

Tex raises an eyebrow at him, trying to ignore the growing pain radiating from her shoulder as Terrence begins his piece. "What, you want to get a matching tattoo or something?"

"Heck yeah. We're adorable, remember?"

"Terrence if you give Felix a matching tattoo I'm doubling the amount of laps your team is doing tomorrow."

\---

Terrence is long gone by the time Tex collapses next to Felix on her bed. He kisses the skin above her new rose tattoo before checking the bandaid on his side. 

"We should show them off tomorrow."

"How about we don't." Tex makes a mental note to triple the amount of laps the inmates have to do in the morning. 

"I think after this is all over I'm going to keep Terrence around. He does good work."

"If you suck his dick I want to watch."

"Deal." Felix grins before falling serious. "But hey, what are you plans for after all this is over?"

Tex would really rather not be thinking about that. "Depends on if I can save my boys or not."

"If you can?"

"I'll probably be spending all my time keeping Hargrove off their tail."

"And if you can't?"

She has to really think about that. "Probably drown myself in money and misery. Maybe buy a planet to live on alone." 

"God you're depressing today."

She shoves him. He just wraps himself around her, pulling her closer. 

She decides to play along. "What about you?"

"Locus wants to retire. I'll probably get bored after a few months and go back to being a Merc again." 

She chuckles softly. "Sound like you."

"You should come with us. Join the team."

He's half asleep already. Doesn't even notice when she doesn't answer. 

She spends the rest of the night trying to figure out if there's a way to both keep her boys and her new family safe.


	12. Riptide

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Epsilon gets hit in the face by reality while he and Carolina watch Felix and Tex infiltrating an abandoned rebel base. Meanwhile Wash struggles to keep Epsilon's memories in the past where they belong, and takes a moment to appreciate having the sim troopers in his life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fuck this was a beast. Sorry for the delay. I got... Distracted.

Carolina does NOT flinch as Epsilon's hologram sparks to life right in front of her face. "Hey, you wanna watch a live feed of the Pirates raiding one of the old rebel bases?"

"If it's a live feed shouldn't you be showing Kimball so she can send a scouting group?"

Epsilon shrugs. "Probably, but it's pretty far from here so it'll just be a pain in the ass. Sure you aren't curious?"

She shakes her head and returns her attention to the ration reports in front of her. If they could just-

"Tex and Felix are leading the raid."

Carolina puts the papers down immediately. "Put it on the screen. Right now."

Epsilon blinks out of sight, only to reappear a second later as the computer screen on the wall beside here lights up with a live feed from the security cameras of a base. Epsilon flips through them slowly, giving Carolina time to absorb what she's seeing.

Ten men in total, plus Felix and Tex in full armour, scattered around the small base in pairs as they go through boxes and dig out some abandoned supplies and notes.

Finally, Epsilon starts following Tex and Felix as they walk down one of the halls, helmets bobbing in a muted conversation. At one point Tex stops to shove Felix off his feet in response to something he says. Epsilon laughs out loud at the sight but quickly falls silent from one of Carolina's glares.

"Can you get any audio?"

"No can do. Looks like the rebel's security system never even installed the mics. Can't tap into what was never there."

Carolina nods in acceptance, eyes narrowed on the screen as the two mercenaries enter the main communication room of the old base. It's filled with trash and a few personal momentos from the soldiers who lived there, which the duo immediately dig into.

Epsilon honestly just LIGHTS UP as Tex finds an abandoned rebel helmet and removes her own. She and Felix were still in the middle of their conversation, and she stops to respond to whatever his last comment was.

"Hey C, want me to read their lips?"

"You can do that?"

"Have a little faith..."

He turns his attention back to the screen, watching as Tex laughs before reading her lips.

" _No I'm not giving you a free pass to fuck Terrence. It was a joke."_

Felix's shoulder's give an exaggerated roll before he bobs a response.

Tex looks annoyed. " _No, that's not happening either. Not even in your dreams."_

Carolina growls in annoyance. "Epsilon, this is completely useless."

His hologram shrugs. "I don't know. Let's just keep watching. Might learn something."

Tex finally puts the old rebel helmet on and seems to say something to Felix. In response he rips off his own helmet and rushes toward her. " _Hey no fair, I wanna see!"_

Tex passes him the helmet and smirks as he checks out what she found on the HUD. " _Think Locus will like 'em?"_

Felix says something and Tex's face turns to one of disgust. " _Okay no. I can handle ONE person I know having a crush on Washington at a time. He is a baby!"_

Felix tilts his helmet at her.

" _No, I don't care how old he actually is."_

Carolina hides her chuckle behind a cough, but Epsilon notices anyway. "Told you she still cared."

Felix takes off the helmet and holds it onto his hip as he smirks at Tex. Epsilon goes back to reading their words. " _If we tell Locus he can have Washington he'll probably help you with your plan."_

" _He'll never betray Control."_

" _He might. With the right motivation."_ Felix takes a step toward Tex, wrapping an arm around her waist to pull her close. " _Or you could give me the right motivation to want to change his mind..."_

" _I already told you you're not allowed to even LOOK at Tucker and that's not changing."_

_"I'll change your mind on that eventually, but no, I was actually thinking of something else."_

Epsilon's stomach drops when he reads the next words on Tex's lips. Carolina gives him a look but doesn't say anything until he's ready.

"Apparently they're dating."

"Dating?"

He can't keep the anger out of his voice. "Well she just called herself his girlfriend."

Carolina shrugs. "Always knew she was a slut. I'm not surprised."

Epsilon pointedly ignores her as he goes back to translating.

Felix is talking. " _Listen, if you swear to come with us after this planet is dust, I'll get your boys off this planet by myself if I have to."_

 _"If you keep them safe, I'll go anywhere-"_ Epsilon stops.

Carolina snorts out something rude under her breath but Epsilon doesn't notice. He's frozen. On the screen, Felix is kissing down Tex's neck and her lips are parted slightly. The room has never been so quiet and Epsilon's never been so distressed.

Carolina finally notices, shutting the screen off as Epsilon continues to shrink with despair. "What's wrong?"

"I can't..." He stops. "I don't know what she sounds like."

"What do you mean?"

"What he was doing to her. I don't... I've never heard her...."

Carolina blinks at him. "She's a robot, Epsilon. Of course you've never heard her moan."

Epsilon stares at her before shaking his head. "You wouldn't understand."

"What's there to understand? You're being ridiculous."

"Am I?" He asks. "I never got to hear her moan or be happy. I don't know what she sounds like when she laughs. Not my Tex, anyway."

"What does that even matter? Epsilon, she's a traitor."

He stares through her for a minute before logging off abruptly.

"Didn't know you could be so tactless, Carolina."

She gives Wash a curt nod as he stands in her doorway. With her permission, he enters and takes a seat next to her desk. "I didn't see you at lunch."

She ignores his worry over her eating habits. "How was I being tactless?"

"Really? Carolina, he still loves her. Of course watching her being with someone else is going to hurt him."

"He should just get over it. She's a traitor and a monster."

Wash sighs behind his helmet. "C, you have to stop letting your guilt eat at you like this."

Her head snaps toward him immediately. Her voice dangerously low with venom. "I have nothing to feel guilty over."

"I never said you did-"

"Everything is HER fault, Wash. How are none of you understanding this? She's just another monster and you're all acting like she's one of the gang!"

Wash chooses his next words carefully. "Well, she is. She was one of the Reds and Blues before I was. Of course she's part of their gang."

"Wash, she's a monster-"

"I shot Donut." He points out. "And held Doc hostage for weeks. Probably would have killed them all if I'd had the chance. And you held a gun to Tucker's head and treated them all like disposable chess pieces."

She doesn't have a response.

"C, I know what you're going through."

That was the wrong thing to say.

"No you don't." He can feel her glare through her helmet as she stands, towering over him. "You have no idea what it's like to see the ghost of your mother trying to kill your friends, trying to torture you and hurt you every chance she gets. You have no fucking idea what I'm going through Wash."

"Oh boo hoo. It's been a month."

She blinks at him in surprise. He continues.

"I've been seeing her ever since Epsilon fucked up my brain. And let me tell you, C, that is not her."

"I know Tex isn't my mom."

"No. She was our friend. My friend, at least. And every time you see her face, it hurts you. But every time I hear her voice or see her move all I can think about is having to lose her again."

Now Carolina just looks confused. Her helmet tilts to the side curiously. "You care about her?"

He lets out a long sigh before answering. "Epsilon does."

\---

He doesn't love Tex. Never did. Not in that way, at least.

Sometimes he wonders if he could, if he did. Sometimes the dreams are so vivid and real that Wash catches himself wondering if they'd actually happened. Epsilon's imprints have faded with time, but not nearly enough. There were still days where Wash couldn't tell if a thought or a moment was his or Epsilon's.

Tex was always in the centre of those thoughts.

On Chorus it had gotten better. The entire planet was so alien that there were less triggers for the memories then before. And there was Tucker and the other reds and blues. They were proving to be distracting and exhausting enough to keep him from getting lost in his thoughts.

Well, most of the time anyway.

"Hey Wash!"

One of these days he'd figure out how Donut always managed to get the jump on him. The man ran toward him, helmet off and smile wide enough it looked like it was reaching from ear to ear. "You'll never guess what happened!"

"What happened?"

"Nope!" Donut laughs. "You've got to guess!"

"Grif did a lap?"

"Nope!"

"Simmons is going on a date?"

"Oh, please. Guess again."

"Sarge finally snapped and killed everyone?"

Donut stops and falls silent at that. "What? No, that... Eva had her baby!"

Wash blinks. "Who?"

"Oh come on, Wash, you know her!"

He really doesn't. "Oh. Right. Uh, that's nice?"

"It is, isn't it!" Donut says with a smile, quickly grabbing onto Wash's arm and pulling him down toward their rooms. "Come on! You can help me pick out a ribbon for the teddy bear!"

"Where did you find a teddy bear?"

"I didn't find one, silly. I made it!"

Honestly, Wash isn't even surprised. It's probably beautiful too. With perfectly sized ears and made out of something soft like cashmere.

Sometimes, Wash had to stop and take a moment to really appreciate the Reds and Blues. Sure Doyle and Kimball never stopped singing praises for his carefully crafted training regime and Carolina's tactical know-how. But the Reds and Blues were this planet's heart. Simmons once spent hours tinkering in Armonia's old and abandoned cinema just so he could fix it and arrange for his team to have a night out watching dated Chick Flicks. And Grif's team had provided popcorn and extra rations from a midnight raid on the barracks' kitchen.

Caboose had a smile and a hug for everyone he knew, regardless of the style or colour of their armour, and Donut remembered every detail anyone had ever told him. Who else spent days carefully crafting stuffed animals and baby clothing for those few Armonians who couldn't fight?

They'd finally arrived in the hallway outside of the rooms the Reds and Blues had been given, and with an excited wave, Donut disappeared into his room, promising to return momentarily.

Wash slipped into the closest room the second he could, shutting and locking it behind him immediately.

Fortunately, it didn't seem like Donut had noticed.

Unfortunately, Tucker certainly had.

The younger man lay sprawled out on his bed, helmet off and perched on a table, his braids dangling free of their usual ponytail. He had his tablet on his lap, laid down so he could stare at Wash curiously.

"Huh."

Wash puts a finger up to silence him. "Don't say a word. I'm hiding."

"... From?"

"Donut."

"Oh, did Eva have the kid?"

"How does everyone know who that is but me?"

"Eva? Blonde?"

Wash shakes his head.

"Giant bazoonkas. Was on Simmons team before her pregnancy?"

Wash feels like he should know who this is. But nope.

"Dude, she helped you add memory to your tablet for that training room scheduling shit you were doing!"

Wash needs something a bit more specific then that. "How did she shoot you down when you flirted with her?"

"Kicked me in the balls and then spun my helmet around."

Oh! That one! "Eva! Right! Wait, she was pregnant?"

Tucker shakes his head at him in exasperation, but he's smiling so Wash decides not to be insulted.

"Anyway, what are you doing in here?"

Tucker blinks at him before looking around at the room. "Isn't this... my room?"

Right. Stupid question. "I mean, uh, shouldn't you be training?"

"It's Thursday night, man. I always have Thursday nights free."

Washington is tempted to ask why, but he has a sinking feeling they've had this conversation before. The tired smile on Tucker's face tells him that they have DEFINITELY had this conversation before. "Uh..."

"Thursday nights I record Junior's video journal."

Shit. That's right. Washington remembers that. He also remembers pointing out how the videos were a pointless use of data memory since they couldn't send them immediately. Tucker had left the room very quickly after that and even Caboose took a turn pointing out how dumb he was.

Not one of his best moments.

"Can I stay? Or do you want some privacy?"

Tucker gives him a smile, the kind of smile that means trouble. "You can stay... As long as you're in the video."

God damnit.

"Fine." He ignores the shit eating grin on Tucker's face as the younger man scoots over on his bed to make room. "But don't expect me to say anything."

"Of course not, man. Just do your strong, silent type thing."

"Sure."

Wait, what?

"Wait. What?"

Instead of answering, Tucker starts the recording. "Hey kiddo! Looks like I've got a special guest for today's video! Say hi, Wash!"

Washington shoots him his best glare, biting his tongue to keep from laughing at Tucker's grin.

"Right, right. Sorry kid, he's not much of a talker. Anyway, I'm sure you'll be happy to hear that your Aunt Tex is still kicking ass and taking names."

Wash can't help but interrupt. "Wait, didn't Tex kidnap him?"

"Well, yeah." Tucker admits with an exaggerated eye roll. "But that was fucking ages ago. He got over it. And she's still the cool Aunt."

Right. Because that makes sense...

Tucker continues. "Uncle Grif and Uncle Simmons haven't tied the knot yet but I think they're getting close, so I might still win that pot."

"Wait, you guys are betting on when Grif and Simmons will get married? Are they even dating?"

"Chya! I mean, not that they know it. But everyone else does."

"Everyone else being..."

"The entire planet!" Tucker laughs. "Even Felix had some cash in the pot. Actually, if Grif and Simmons kiss in public within the next two months, he wins."

Wash thinks about that for a minute. "Put me in for twenty credits on a public declaration of love before a big battle within a month."

Tucker's grin might just break his face. "Man! I knew you could have fun!"

"It's not fun. It's an investment."

"Oh my god!"

There's a little flip in the pit of Washington's belly when Tucker claps him on the back while howling with laughter. They continue the video, Washington cutting in every so often with a joke or to ensure Tucker gets the facts right while telling a grossly exaggerated story. But it's comfortable, and it's fun.

He really is lucky to have the Reds and blues in his life.

He's lucky to have Tucker.

And he knows it.

**Author's Note:**

> So there was a time when I wouldn't dream of doing a story like this. Tex died. It's fine. She's been my favourite character since I began watching Red vs Blue, but characters die and you have to move on.
> 
> Then I saw Epsilon Tex's smashes helmet on Hargrove's ship in that last episode and saw red. 
> 
> I will not allow her to go quietly into that good night! 
> 
> But seriously. This was basically just started so I could get a fix of Texas/Felix and hopefully lure other people into shipping it too. Sure the relationship probably won't appear for a while (it's not even tagged yet!), but it WILL be there. And it WILL be glorious.
> 
> Updates will likely be weekly due to me job and internship.


End file.
